What is stopping you from starting your new idea or business?
Part 1 of 2 as we explore the common hurdles new founders face in their lack of time, money, confidence and focus.
The four most common hurdles new founders face.
If I were to make a bet about what is keeping you from getting your new venture off the ground I would place ££ on it being one of these:
A lack of time
A lack of money
A lack of confidence
A lack of focus
This isn’t a fair bet since I have solid evidence of these trends, from the last two years running The Ask coaching practice and this newsletter. You are my source!
Rarely is it a lack of talent or ability that prevents new businesses or ideas from getting off the ground.
In fact, talent (aka your skills, ability, and experience) is often the driving force that powers your desire to build something in the first place. Talent acts as the window through which to see one’s own potential as it shines a light onto the path forward if it were merely acted upon.
The perception we have of our own talent and potential can act as a trap — rather than taking the bold leap to put both ourselves and our businesses into the world. If we only imagine what we are capable of in our heads we get to maintain an idealised view of our potential — rather than have to face the reality of the consequences that we might fall short.
Amazing with people? You know you could be an incredible leader, coach or community builder….
Software savvy? You can dream of the impact that your lines of code could have on the world at a scale a human could not have alone
Creative genius? You can picture that curated concept store or gallery you are inspired to bring to life
But without addressing the realities of creating something new (having enough time, money, confidence and focus) your dreams will remain just that: dreams.
In today’s post, we will unpack the first two of these hurdles and look at some tools for overcoming them.
1. A lack of time
Without enough time you won’t get very far.
New ventures rarely take off with speed on their own accord but instead require a sustained push on the part of the founder or team behind them. The early days can feel glacial as progress is barely visible.
Thankfully we know that this is to be expected and that eventually, in time, we can expect our efforts begin to show some results. Like this:
Source: Visualise Value.
But where to find that precious time in the first place?
I know many of you have jobs alongside your ventures, and perhaps a family to take care of too. The hours left in the day between these two are negligible at best. Very often, the job itself has such an all-consuming or draining nature that it leaves you depleted of the exact creative energy you need to build your new business.
One of the people to respond in our sign-up form said their biggest blocker was: Not enough time with a full time job I need to pay bills that has me burnt out
I know this all too well — previously attempting to launch a ‘side hustle’ in career coaching alongside my full time employment as Head of Talent.
The job was pretty demanding so weeknight evenings felt impossible to think clearly. So on the rare Saturday or Sunday afternoon I might get around to focusing on my idea, I would register a domain name, design a logo, consider my pricing and then… weeks would pass before I would do anything else on it. When I did find a moment of time I would rethink what I’d already done and often go back to the drawing board. Nine months passed doing this with zero results to show for it. Of course, in that timeframe I had a multitude of ideas of ‘all the things I could do if only I had more time’.
My challenge?
I had time but was not prioritising my venture.
Perhaps this is true for you too or perhaps you feel you genuinely do not have enough time.
How do we decide what is enough time, anyway?
Steph Smith has talked to this extensively, one of the internets most successful creators with a best selling guide to ‘Doing Content Right’ which I and many readers of this newsletter have purchased because it is pure gold.
Steph’s made a very handsome income from this product and her other online projects, all whilst operating in a leadership positions full time. She just landed a job running a16z’s podcast based largely on how prolific she’s been in the online space. Steph has made time for her own projects through ruthless prioritisation. She wrote about her perception of free time and starting a business in her famous essay: You Don't Need to Quit Your Job to Make.
Steph and I are child-free and have perhaps more energy than the average person, I realise.
But there are plenty of examples of others in different situations who still manage to find the time too.
One of my clients has a full time job and two young children and has enlisted my help to get a business of her own up and running so that she can make the leap to being her own boss in the near future. She steals the available time she has during her lunch breaks, evenings and weekends. With bags of motivation to build her business, her calendar has been aligned accordingly. In sessions we look at the ‘first next step’ to break down the mammoth task of building a business into the sequence of events that have to happen.
Another client is 68 years old and works in role with frequent night shifts. She recognises this is not going to be sustainable forever. We are looking at ways to create alternative income (but none of these happen overnight and take time to build up). The work together involves reviewing when she can realistically work on her business in her available hours and again ruthlessly prioritise tasks that will move the needle the most.
You get my gist.
My internet friend Shaun Gold Founder of YouTopian Journey writes eloquently about time, and our choices surrounding it. He sees many people creating excuses for their lack of time or seeking pleasure and comfort over discomfort. Risk of something new (and facing our potential talent shortfalls) is rarely comfortable. Read this piece and others from Shaun for some kick-up-the-butt motivation. He will be joining us on the panel at Talent to Money to inspire you all too!
YouTopian Journey - Stop Delaying Your Life
Some of our tried and tested tactics for claiming back your time
Allow me to share some suggestions from The Ask® coaching toolbox:
Use a time tracking app. Eg Toggl can help you to monitor where your time is really going — just set a timer per task and let it do the work.
Set up a recurring accountability session. Set up one with a buddy or join a focus/co-working session that helps you to carve out dedicated time for such pursuits. Out of Hours and London Writers Salon have offered these to their communities and generally, we endorse any cohort based way of starting businesses. I actually joined a group coaching programme when I started The Ask and that accountability with peers made a huge difference.
Commit publicly. There is nothing like social pressure to get you to stick to a plan. I won’t lie, finding time to write this newsletter amongst T2M planning has been a struggle. But I’ve committed publicly to writing to you every other Wednesday — I am going to keep my word.
Make a regular appointment with yourself; to work on your venture and stick to it. If you can take yourself to a new environment without your usual distractions, even better. Library, coffee shop, spare room in a friends’ place? Get focused and make it a date.
Review your commitments. Do you really need to go to that baby shower/restaurant opening/leaving do? Often we live in the world of ‘shoulds’ but carving out intentional time is key if you really want to make something a priority.
Set deadlines. Segment each part of the project into chunks.
If you have open ended timelines you will find yourself at the whim of Parkinsons’ Law which dictates that projects take as much time as we give them.
So don’t just tell yourself to ‘work on new business’ in perpetuity but instead give yourself enforced deadlines for each part of your journey so that you can keep making progress through the stages.
2. A lack of money
If you ask me, a lack of money and a lack of time are inextricably related so in many ways they cannot be treated as separate challenges. Often the exact reason that we do not have enough time is that our time is being spent earning the money that we need to live and pay our bills.
Of course, were it not for our pesky jobs we would have all the time in the world to be a successful entrepreneur!
We need money to sustain us in life and the method of receiving money that we’ve been taught is to trade our time for money by clocking into a job for a certain number of hours each week, in return for a steady pay-check.
But you dear reader probably don’t want to be an employee hence reading this newsletter.
So the question becomes — how does an aspiring entrepreneur get the money to build their business (or remove money worries surrounding their new business)? Since employment typically takes away a key ingredient we need to be successful in entrepreneurship (our time) we need alternatives.
The time v money conundrum has been well-documented and shows up time and time again in my coaching practice. I have a client who has done an incredible job since we started our sessions in saying ‘no’ to high paying gigs that would take her time away from being able to work on her new business, but in doing so, has had to reflect her spending and lifestyle choices to reflect this trade off.
Many people I speak to are happy to make these lifestyle trade offs in the name of having their own business.
But they hope this will be just a short-term situation. The real question they are asking me in their coaching sessions is “How can I be sure that if I forgo money now, that I will make money back later”?
People are often willing to take a drop in money now by either quitting their job, winding down freelance contracts or going part time but hope to do so with a guarantee that the payoff will be worth it and that the money will come later on. (Later once they have used their spare time to build their business.)
Time for the bad news… There is no guarantee. That is the risk you bear in entrepreneurship and it is a risk that bears repeating.
The only way to find out if that risk will pay off is to do it, to show up and do the best work you can to find out if you can make that money back.
Whilst we are on the topic of money I have some more bad news I am afraid.
You will never stop worrying about money when running your own business. I posted this on LinkedIn the other day (I’m posting a bit more lately if you want to give me a follow)
Obviously if you work on your money mindset and confidence and have a plan for your business, you can overcome money worries to some extent (more on this in the next newsletter).
But at the end of the day it is precisely because we have traded the certainty of a steady pay check for the uncertainty of self-employment that we invite these fears as part and parcel of this deal. What we lose in certainty we gain in autonomy, fulfilment and purpose, all being well.
The key takeaway? Don’t let a fear of money stop you from starting. Find ways to manage your money effectively, build up your savings, know your numbers (Profit = Revenue - Costs) and be careful.
If you really do not have enough money to start a company consider if that is the best option for you right now, or just start to generate some income from odd jobs available that you can start with ease (without having to learn a new skill first) until you feel more ready to put yourself in financially-risky situations. That being said, the less you have, the less you have to lose which is why we often see many college dropouts going for it more often than we see successful C suite execs quitting.
Some of our suggested money resolutions for new founders
Know your (net) worth. Do you know how much money you have across all your various accounts and assets, minus liabilities? It is an important number to know so that you can figure out your financial runway, set goals and create the feeling of safety in your business and life. The ‘number’ you need looks different for everyone depending on your situation and outgoings but is worth calculating. Money Dashboard in the UK or Nerd Wallet for US readers can help.
Leverage tools. There are SO many personal finance tools and apps available but the main point being use them to your advantage and take control of your finances so that you can create better habits around money. We endorse the incredible team behind Juno app for women in the UK and our friends are building something cool at Maybe if you’re in the US get early access!
Find funding sources. Not every business needs to raise money but becoming acquainted with what funds are available is a great starting point. We love our friend Solomon’s business Curated Funding for doing the leg work to source grants for creative entrepreneurs. This post addresses some of the different types of funding you can consider.
Work on your money mindset. Whilst mindset cannot overcome practical money challenges it can help you feel more calm and in control when it comes to your finances. Money mindset work involves interrogating how you really feel about money (which gets shaped in our psyche as early as seven years old!) and helps you overcome any resistance to earning or keeping wealth that you might have. Feel free to get in touch if you are a money mindset coach so I can send people your way!
Not without a plan, though.
This post offers an introduction to some of the ways in which you might be able to overcome the time and money hurdles. It is not complete however, without a focused-plan and the confidence to follow it that you will truly overcome those hurdles.
Stay tuned for the next post to get more on those pointers and of course, come to the Talent to Money summit to get clear on your purpose, find your confidence, your customers and platforms for growing your business.
