7 fears stopping you from starting or scaling a business

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you how it actually works. We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense. But it doesn't. The era of the seven Figure Physician CEO is here. And it's not about working harder. It's about learning entrepreneurship as a system. The same way you mastered ACLs and pals, you can master the algorithm of building a profitable scalable business. That's why I recorded the seven Figure Physician CEO audiobook. Whether you're building a medical or non medical business, and whether your goal is your first million, first 2 million, first 5 million, first 10 million, this is where the journey starts. There is no Calvary coming to save us. We are the Calvary. So. So go get your audiobook now. Www.entremd.com sevenfigurebook and let's rewrite the narrative for physicians starting today.

Hi docs. Welcome to the ontrembd podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

Welcome back to the Entre MD podcast, your one stop shop for inspiration to thrive as an entrepreneur. I am so excited that you're here today and I want to actually take a moment and say thank you. I want to say thank you for listening to the podcast, thank you for subscribing, for reviewing, for sharing. I mean, we've been listened to in over 22 countries and that's only possible because of you. I don't know that I know people in 22 countries, but thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, and today what I want to do is I want to take a conversation from our online Facebook community and bring it into the podcast and I believe it'll be very beneficial. This is questions that are asked or statements that are made by physicians just like you who are entrepreneurs. And if you are not part of our online community, I want to invite you to join us. You can go to Facebook and search Entre MD so E N T R E M D and you'll find us. You can click to join us. Join the group. There are three simple questions to answer and voila. You are part of a great community of physician entrepreneurs and I'll advise You to engage as much as you can with the group. Lots of great content there. Okay. So about a week ago, I had typed in the group, I said, the biggest challenge around starting a business for me is dash. And, you know, there were a lot of comments there, and I picked some of those comments, and I'm going to be addressing those fears. So if that's a fear that you have, then you kind of have some pointers on what to do. And also, if you are not starting a business, you already have a business, this still applies because it's really the fear of starting something new. So if you have started a business, if you're starting a business, that's a fear, if you've started one, but it's not yet profitable and you're trying to build it up to profitability is probably the same fear. And if it's. If you've built it, it's kind of in cruise control, but, you know, you should scale it, then these fears rear their ugly heads again. So we're talking about fear, period. Okay. So I'm going to take some of the responses that I got from the group, and then we'll be going through those. So the first one is the fear of failure. And that is something that plagued me a lot when I first started off as an entrepreneur with my private practice before going into the business coaching world and real estate and all of that stuff. So I get it. And at every time that I've tried to scale or, you know, take the business to the next level, that fear has shown up again. And I want to tell you how I handle it, and maybe you can adopt that. I don't really believe that fear goes away. I think the only way to not be fearful in that kind of way is to not try to do anything new or anything bigger. But if you're going to keep advancing, then I think that fear is always going to kind of creep up. The people you see who are acting confidently and who are doing a lot of things, they're not doing it because they have no fear. They're doing it in spite of the fear. And that's really the truth. The. The more I've spoken to highly successful people, the more I found that we're kind of all the same. We. We really have a lot of battles, you know, that are similar. So what I did was I replaced that fear with a new fear. And that fear is, what if I don't become what I have the potential to be? Right? So let's say you're supposed to start a Business. And you're like, oh, I'm scared. What? You know, what if it doesn't work? What if I fail? And then I want you to play the picture of what it will look like if you succeeded. Okay, so let's play that out. So, you know, I started practice this year, it will be 10 years ago. Okay, So a decade ago, started a practice I was really afraid I would fail. But 10 years down the line, what has happened is I've built a practice that is thriving. I work in the practice two days a week, and I really work two days a week because I'm not ready to hang up my stethoscope. I tried one day a week and then I started losing my clinical reflexes. I was like, oh my goodness. So I have to do at least two days a week. So I work two days a week and I have no financial pressures whatsoever. And the practice has been the foundation for sponsoring the other businesses that we've done. And in the process of running that practice, I've also learned how to become an entrepreneur. So I've been able to take those same skills and apply it to an online business, to a coaching business, to real estate, to all the other stuff that I do. I've had so many benefits from doing that. So if I didn't face that fear then, then I would be missing out on all of this. Do you see what I'm saying? If you play out what your life could look like if your business worked, then replace the fear of failure with the fear of not accomplishing that, right? Like I could be that. So I'm going to do what I need to do. I can be that. So I'm going to dare this fear of failure. Because you know, there's, what if you fail? But what if you don't? What if you succeed? And the truth of the matter is, if you fail, I am telling you that you probably get a lot of experience on how to do things better, that you're really not even the same. So in a way you succeeded as long as you're working. I mean, like if you fail because you wouldn't lift a finger, that's a completely different topic, you know, but replace it with that fear. Replace it with the lives that you could touch. So for instance, I have a client who had a cash based clinic and wasn't really as profitable as she wanted it to be. And we started working together and within four or five months, I mean, she was generating almost, almost 10 times the income she was before we started working together. But she made A statement that touched me. I still remember it till today. And she said, you know what? You just have. You haven't helped just my business because my business is better, because my power of contribution is bigger. It's relieved a lot of pressure in my family. Like, even my marriage is so much better and all this stuff. But what if I didn't say yes? What if I was so afraid of failure as a business coach that I didn't do that? That's a life that would not have had that result. So the fear of not helping people, not touching the lives that I could touch, should make me dare the fear of failure. Okay? So that's what I did. You can adopt it, but I think you should replace your fear with a new fear. Okay. All right. The second fear is not having enough capital. And, I mean, I think different people will respond to this differently. I have been more of the bootstrap type of doctor. I can be like, hashtag, boots, bootstrap md. Haven't done a lot of, you know, having people invest in my businesses. But then again, my businesses are different. There's some kind of businesses that will require investments and stuff like that. But let me tell you this. If you are starting out as an entrepreneur and you have no experience as an entrepreneur, very limited experience, you probably don't want a whole lot of people investing in your business, and you don't want a whole lot of capital because you can blow it as quick as you get it because you don't know what you're doing. Like, really, you don't. So you don't always need $150,000 to start a new business or any of those kind of things. You can start from where you are. You can start small and decide to grow. When I started my practice, I'm almost like, oh, my gosh, should I say this? I literally started it off with $10,000. And that. That was so funny saying it. $10,000. I had a clinic that was downsizing and had a lot of solid equipment, and I just inherited it. I mean, I paid for it, but it wasn't anything. I got an office that was already built out and had three exam rooms, which is really, you know, if you're starting, that's what one clinician needs. And I got that. And so my rent was low, my overhead was low, and I picked up a job doing urgent care shifts, which I did for the first two years of the practice.

And.

And so that I could maintain, you know, expenses in my house as I, you know, my home as I was Building up the practice and I kept my overhead low, I kept it really low. And then for everything that came out of the business, I just reinvested it. So I kind of made my capital as I went. And for a lot of service based businesses that could be a model that you could do. Now, this was 10 years ago, so I don't know if you can do it. $10,000. But the point I'm trying to make is don't let that stop you. Because if you say, yes, I'm going to start a business, then you'll figure it out, right? You'll figure it out. So I would say say yes and figure it out. It might be a good time to maybe have a coach look at your plan, or a mentor look at your plan and, you know, make sure it's a workable plan. But don't let money stop you. I mean, that's my point, you know, say yes and figure it out. If you need to get a loan, you can get a loan. If you need to get stuff from family or friends, you can do that. If you know you need to get an extra job that will fund your business as you start it, then do that. But there are gazillion million ways to do this stuff. So the bottom line is maybe get somebody to look at your plan to make sure it's a workable plan and then say yes and figure it out. Okay, so that's the second fear. All right, so the third question I got is not enough time, okay? Now for the things that are important for you, you're not going to have enough time to do them. You're just gonna have to make the time. Okay? It's kind of like, you know, you have a newborn, the newborn is here. You can't say, I don't have time to take care of the newborn. I mean, like, figure it out, you know, but really a serious note, you have to make time for it. And this will require us being brutally honest with ourselves. Because I have seen people who say, I don't have time to. To start a business. And I know they spend at least five hours on Facebook, right? Or I don't have enough time. But then they're taking five vacations a year. And I'm not against vacations. I think five vacations a year is a good number. But. But I'm. What I'm trying to say is that you have the time. Maybe you don't want to give the time or maybe you haven't thought of it this way. So make the time. You can Start off with, I'm going to pull out five hours a week from somewhere and start investing that time in my business. You know, so make the time. If there are things to take away, you look at your social media time, your TV time, your social time, you will find time that you can invest in a business. Okay, so make the time. The fourth answer I got was, how do I know if this is the right business? And this is such a powerful question. How do I know? And again, I really think when you're starting off a business, I do think it's worthwhile to talk to a mentor. I do think it's worthwhile to invest in a coach because they will help you navigate these things, because some things are bad businesses you probably shouldn't do anyway. But at the same time, you're never going to be completely sure though, right? Like, for instance, if you're getting married, how do you know this is the right man or woman? How do you really know? I mean, you do your due diligence, then you say, yes, you know what I'm saying? But you don't know. You're a physician. You chose a specialty. So, you know, maybe you're a surgeon, you're a gastroenterologist, you're an anesthesiologist, you're a pediatrician, you're a neurosurgeon. How did you know that was the right specialty for you, right? So you looked at what you were good at, you looked at what you were passionate about, you did your due diligence, and then you said yes. And that's the same thing you do in a business, right? You. You look at something you're passionate about. And I say that with, you know, like 10 grains of salt, right? Because I try not to live my life just by passion, because those kind of come, come and go, but what you're driven by, maybe, and what you're good at, right? And for a business, something that can be profitable. So that's where the due diligence comes in. Like, do I see a roadmap? Is this something that could bring in revenues? Is something that is scalable? Is this something that I could retire on? Because if it's not, then maybe you shouldn't be spending the time, the effort, you know, the money to create that. But you do your due diligence and you say yes. Now, one of the things a lot of, you know, my clients would tell me is, you know, oh, you know, so I'm ready to start. I picked out the name, I'm working on the logo I'm working on the website. And more. More times than not, I'm like, you don't need a website. And they're like, why not? I was like, because you don't even know what you want to do. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know what your message is. You haven't tested this in the marketplace. So. So you are going to course correct. And in six months, what you'll be saying might be so different from what you're saying now. So why spend $5,000 developing a website that's going to be invalid in the next six months? Right? So the beginning is to test it in the marketplace and all that stuff. So pick a business. Pick something. Say yes. After your due diligence and all that, and if you have a coach, even better. After you guys have worked out all those kinks, say yes. And then start moving. And if you need to pivot, you will. If you go on to, you know, start another business, you will. But don't get stuck on, is this the right one? You're never going to know 100%, but you can look, where's my passion? What am I good at? Can this make me money? I do my due diligence, and then I say yes. And then if I need to course correct, I course correct. Okay, so that's number four. Number five. I don't know where to start from. I don't know where to start from. Okay, all right. So when you have an idea, this is a kind of business I want to do. One of the best things you can do. I did this with my first business with my private practice, is go find someone who's done what you want to do and understudy them. So when I wanted to start a pediatric practice, I had no idea. I'm like, I don't even know. And the practice I had been working at, it was an interesting setup. I got the job, and the doctor who owned the practice was a neonatologist. So because of conflicts of interest, he couldn't work in the practice. So technically, I went from residency to solo practitioner. That's literally the way it went. So even as I was like, you know, I. I haven't really seen this done. I mean, I've done stuff. I've learned a lot. I've done a lot, but I haven't seen this done. And it wasn't like, now that there are Facebook groups where you can go ask questions and stuff, I was like a lone ranger. I had him to consult, but that was kind of it. So I literally, after deciding to start a practice, I literally went through maybe 150 pediatric websites. Like, what kind of services do they offer? Right? What is included in the bio of the doctor for their self pay patients? Do they publish the prices? What kind of extra procedures do they do in the office? I will look at their reviews. What do people love about pediatric practices? What do they hate about pediatric practices? Because you can see trends and stuff like that. And I did all those things to understudy. The more you study, the more that idea gets arms and legs and becomes real. And it's amazing what happens. So if you don't know where to start, you find somebody who's done what you want to do and you go understudy them. If you. I wasn't bold enough when I started to do what I'm telling you now, but I've done this multiple times since. But if there's a practice owner or somebody who's doing what you want to do, call them up, say, hey, you know, can, can we do, can we do lunch? Can we catch coffee and all this stuff. This is what I'm thinking of doing now. Don't call somebody who you're going to be in direct competition with, right? So like, if you're a practice owner, just find someone that's, you know, 30 miles from you or whatever and you know stuff like that. But you know, somebody that would be happy to help, would happy to offload and show you their stuff because you're not a threat in any way, okay? So see someone who's done it and understudy them. And most importantly, start taking action. There is a limit to what you can learn by listening to other people and reading books and understudying people. The vast majority of your learning happens when you start taking action. That's when you know the right questions to ask. That's when it dawns on you that, oh my God, it's happening. That, I mean, like, action is amazing. It's the best way to learn. Okay? So start taking action. All right, number six, can I make this profitable? Like, will it pay my bills? Because, so this person says, I can do it because I love it, but will it make me money? And I want to start from. Before I answer this, before I address this, I want to, I want to start from a different spot, okay? Because especially as physicians, we're wired to help. We're wired to serve. We would go above and beyond. We would show up earlier than we need to, than when we need to be somewhere. We'll go later. We want to make sure our patients are taken care of. We are helpers. Then in the same training system, we have zero money conversations, okay? By the time someone comes to see you, the co pay deductibles, all those have been taken care of. We never have to have this conversation. So we don't make the connection between serving and helping and money. We. We. We don't have that connection. So some. I've seen many doctors who own businesses and they're like, that's my passion project. I don't really want to make money for it from it, but it's a business. And I want to invite you to think of this in a different way. Okay? One of the things I found out years into my practice, I was just like, you know, blissfully ignorant, is a number of practices that go out of business every year. And what one of the things that I feel is my obligation as the CEO of my practice is, is to keep us profitable. And when I. I see that as a responsibility to my patients because I want to help them. But guess what I can't do. If I can't meet payroll, I can't help them. Guess what I can't do? If I can't pay the mortgage, I can't help them. So part of me helping them is making sure that I stay profitable. That really is the truth. So helping is great, but the vehicle that will allow you continue to help and potentially help on a larger scale is profitability. That really is what it is. So I want you to start looking at business in a new way. A business has two functions that are equal, okay? One is not necessarily more important than the other one is, is. Well, let me take that back. One is the core, but the other one, you still can't do without it. Let me put it that way, okay? Now, the core of a business is to serve clients, okay? That is the core. So the core of a medical business is to serve the patients. That is the core. All right? But right around that core, the wheels that make it go and is profitability. So business is there to serve clients and make a profit, because if you can't make a profit, you can no longer serve clients. Okay? So now that I've said that, I want to say that one of the things you do at the beginning of a business is you build a roadmap. And that roadmap says, this is the kind of business I'm trying to build. This is a kind of revenue the business can make. This is a way that I could scale this Business because you need to see that it's profitable. So when I do, when I start working with private coaching clients, for instance, the very first call, what we do is a roadmap. And they're like, oh, this idea, I don't know. I was like, well, let's play it out and we trace it down. And they're like, oh, my gosh, that's a seven figure business. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. So that way, you know, now if you're starting from the scratch, you do know that's going to take you a moment to get there. But you know that this is where I am on the roadmap. I'm making progress. I'm going in the direction that will get me to profitability. It'll pay for itself. Right. It's going to be profitable. It will give me the freedom to live life the way I want to live it. Right. Work as much as I want to work. Okay, so you need to have a roadmap. You don't want to start a business and hope that it can generate income. You need to be clear on, this is what I do. And if I do this, it will make me this much. You need to be clear. Now, does that mean it's going to work out exactly that way? No, but you need to have guidelines. You need to have something you can work with. Okay, all right, so you need a roadmap. First of all, you need to decide, I'm not a hobbyist, I'm an entrepreneur. So, which means I need to generate a profit. Okay. And you need a roadmap. Okay. All right. Number seven, Is there a true need for my business? I get this all the time. Like, but you know what? It's normal to feel that the things you're great at are not really things of value because you're like, I mean, it's so easy. Anybody can understand that. No, it's easy because you're a genius at it. So you understand it. So I'll give you a few examples. But my brother is an amazing keyboardist. Oh, my goodness. Like, he, he doesn't read music, but he, he plays by ear. He plays. I mean, like, he's the, he's the, he's the head keyboardist at, at our home church. And, and he writes songs and, and I mean, he can write you a masterpiece in two hours. He is amazing. He's always like, yeah, you know, Yeah, I just do this stuff. I'm like, where's your album? Yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, I mean, I just sang these songs and put it on. I just wanted to be a gift to the world. I mean, there's no big deal. And there's. There's no big deal. Like, my goodness, what is wrong with you? Right? Because he's so good at it. So to him, it's like, yeah, everybody can do this. I'm like, look around. We're not doing it, okay? I have a client of mine, and she's amazing. She's a dentist, and she helps people get out of debt in record time. I can't remember her numbers. I think it was, like, $250,000 she paid off in four years. And I mean, like, she's. You know, and she's like, yeah, I don't know if people need this. I'm like, are you kidding? I mean, like, student debt. That's all that we talk about, you know? And she has a really great system, and it really is flat out amazing. Um, but I can imagine how she's like, yeah, but that's not. You know, like, if you read this book and that book, I was like, we're not reading the books. And when we read it, we don't see what you see. We need you to do your business. We need you to start your business. Okay? I. I have one client who is. I mean, she's. She's great at real estate investing. And. And, you know, she's like, yeah, but you can learn all this stuff from biggerpockets. I was like, no, no, we're not. Like, you can. It's easy for you, but we need someone to go learn that stuff and demystify it. You know what I mean? Like, that's what we need you to do. So think about yourself and the thing you're thinking about in your. In your business. I have a client who's a. Who's a weight loss doctor. And I mean, oh, this client lost £40. That client lost £100. I'm like, what? I'm like, even. What? How do you do that? Like, she literally has me speechless every time I hear her results. And it's like, oh, they just did that. I'm like, there's nothing just about this. We need you to help us. So you may think that what I do is normal. It's no biggie. But if people are amazed by it, they're amazed by it because it's amazing, okay? And sometimes maybe what you need to do is you need to do a survey of sorts, and you'll be shocked at what you'll see. But I said all that to say it's normal to feel that way. Like, for instance, I could see strategy all day, every day. You could tell me whatever it is you think you want to do, and I can say, that will work. That won't work. This is how we can build it out into a six figure business. Seven figure. I see this stuff in my sleep, and it doesn't seem complicated. I'm like, yeah, I mean, like, everybody can do this, but everybody can't. So we all need everybody to bring their normal genius stuff they can do to the table. And we all learn from each other. So your business is valid, your neighbor's business is valid. And the world is a better place the more we rise up and take ownership of what we're good at. Okay? So want to just realize that, that the fact that you don't feel this is amazing. That's okay, because you're a genius. That's why. Okay? Now if you're like, yeah, but I don't really. I don't really think there's a need for this. I mean, do a survey. Okay, you can do Survey Monkey or we have Facebook groups everywhere, and you can just go the biggest challenge you have with dash and that's whatever, you know, the problem you solve is and stuff like that. You know, the biggest problem you have with DASH is okay, and just let people answer the questions and you'll be shocked. I mean, I've done this with a lot of my students and. And they go do the survey and they're like, oh, my God, I got 300 responses. I didn't know people have these issues. I'm like, yeah, people have these issues. So maybe go do a survey and validate what you're doing. Okay, so these are the fears that were. Were mentioned in the Facebook community. And I wanted to come on here and I wanted to address them. I hope this has helped you. But what I do want to tell you is don't let your fears stop you. They're not real. And everybody you see who is doing stuff, they're not doing it because they're not. They don't have fears. They're doing it in spite of their fears. If you feel like you need help and you know, you can get a coach on board, you know, we would be happy to support you here at Entre MD or find yourself in a. In a community that would support you and you can get some direction, but don't let the fear stop you. You need to move. Okay. All right, so today, what I would love to have you do. If you're not a part of our Facebook community, I want to invite you again to join us. And I would. If you're like, you know, I don't even know how we can even business. I didn't know physicians could really do that. I have an ebook called Three Ways to Make Six Figures for Physician Entrepreneurs, and it's a free download, so you can go to www.entre md.com forward/ebook. Okay. And it's an easy read, but it's one of those that I. What I hope it will do for you is kind of ignite something. You spark something that makes you go, like what? Let's do this. Okay, so download the book, share it with a friend. Enjoy that and I'll see you in the Facebook community. We'll continue with this. Thank you so much again for being part of the Entre MD tribe. I'm grateful you're enjoying the podcast and I will see you next week. Don't let your fear stop you. Go and thrive in spite of them.

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