While there may be some of us who think we are all that and the best thing to enter the world of home businesses since Martha Stewart (who started her empire as a caterer all those years ago), many of us feel just the opposite. We may feel self-conscious, ignorant and completely unprepared to take on the building of a home business. For most of us, our insecurity results in us underestimating what abilities we truly do have.
When we underestimate what we are capable of, we are really selling ourselves short. We might not take risks or push ourselves in the ways that we should to make our businesses a success. Additionally, we might not realize that we can really do MORE for our customers and clients and give them better service or a better experience. How will our customers know what we can do if we do not share that with them?
I know that many of us have been taught humility and humbleness and not to “toot our own horn” but we are a solo operation. We do not have a huge public relations firm out there selling us and promoting our competencies to our target market—we have to do that ourselves. In order to share what we really can do for our prospects, customers and clients, we need to have an accurate understanding of our abilities and our capabilities. This means that we need to watch out for underestimating what we can actually do.
Take stock and focus on your skills and qualities. You do not have to be an expert at everything to be competent. I think this is one of the traps many of us fall into when we are feeling insecure—we assume that since there are people out there who are better at something than we are then we do not have the skills and talents necessary. Even if you are not the best at something, you probably still have skills and abilities that you bring to your business.
See Also: Capturing Unique Talents and Abilities
What Have You Done with Your Talents?