4 Things That Keep Smart People From Starting a Business

Welcome to today's episode of Black Belt Startup with Feras. Thank you for tuning in. What's new in the world of entrepreneurship? This week I had a conversation that truly stuck with me, not because it was dramatic, but because it felt deeply familiar. I was speaking with someone who spent years in corporate. They're smart, highly experienced, and very accomplished. The kind of person who checks all the boxes except one. They've been carrying this quiet, persistent urge to start something of their own. And their company is going through a lot of restructuring, a lot of leadership changes, and some quiet layoffs. You know, the kind of stuff that makes people walk a little slower in the hallway. I was laid off and missed a couple layoffs in the past, so I know exactly how it feels. You never know when this axe is going to fall. So I asked him, have you thought about starting something on your own, starting your own consulting business? He said, and I'm quoting here, I'm very— capital— very, very interested in starting my own business. And then what followed was a flood of hesitation, the kind most people never say out loud, but almost everyone feels. Here's what I heard. I've seen people try to start businesses and fail. I've seen very highly qualified people try to start a business and fail. And why should I be different? Then what if my employer, my manager, let's say they find out and it backfires? And then even if I wanted, even if I wanted to start something, I don't even know how to get my first client. So this person wasn't asking how to build a billion-dollar company. They were just trying to figure out how to start something without risking everything that they've built. And here's what I told them: you don't need to quit your job tomorrow. You don't need a trademark, fancy marketing, or an LLC to get started. You just need 2 hours a day, maybe a couple hours more on the weekend, A service that solves a real problem, and then—and this is the hardest part—the courage to talk to real people. And that's exactly what I want to cover in today's session: the real fears, the real doubts and questions and concerns that hold people back, and then how to start. building the courage to move forward. See, most people don't fail at business and life in general, in general, due to a lack of skill. They fail because they stay in their heads for far too long. They plan forever. And I speak from experience early on in my entrepreneurial journey. They plan forever. They perfect— they want to perfect the offer. They talk to their mentors, they watch YouTube videos, they read books, but they never actually talk to a potential customer. They wait to feel ready. And I covered this in other episodes. Readiness is a myth. Yes, I want you to plan something. I want you to be prepared. But clarity doesn't come from thinking. It comes from doing. And here's the truth that most people won't say out loud. The vast majority of would-be founders never launch. And the data behind it is from Gallup. 62% of people say they want to be their own bosses. I've read other higher statistics. but only 9% actually do it. And my mission, after building 7 businesses and a couple that grew to 7 figures and one that grew to 8 figures, and we ended up selling to Dentsu, the global media giant, my mission now is to help you be part of this courageous 9% who want to start their own business. They want to get on this entrepreneurial journey. And I will help you increase the chances, the likelihood of you making it and making it big. But before we dive in, a couple of housekeeping items. Whether you're watching or listening live or tuning in later, I would love to hear from you. You can go on my website, Startup with Feras, or go on the YouTube channel or on LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook and let me know if you have a question that is sort of a burning question, a situation, or, or a circumstance that's really preventing you from accomplishing your dreams, getting to that freedom, that financial freedom that you are going after. You know, maybe that very first step that you want to take as, as an entrepreneur. Maybe you're stuck in some corporate environment and you're just not sure how to— how and when to take the leap and how to build a a runway for you to take that leap with, with less risk. If you have any of these concerns or others, do let me know. Leave me a comment. If it's something a bit personal, maybe something you don't want to share with the world, feel free to email me at feras@startupwithferas.com. And Feras is spelled F-E-R-A-S, like my first name. And I'll be more than happy to answer you. And I keep everything I get personal and confidential. So, so don't hesitate to reach out. And if you're— for those of you who are joining us, joining us live. Don't hesitate to leave your comments and let me know what's going through your mind. And a reminder that we have these episodes, these live streams, every other Thursday at 3 PM Pacific, 6 PM Eastern. So make sure you hit the follow button or the subscribe button on YouTube, and, um, so this way you won't miss out, miss out on any of the the future episodes and the content that I spent a lot of time developing based on the questions and the feedback I get from the community. Those who want to start a business and not sure how, and those who started and they are struggling. So let's jump, let's jump back in again. For those of you who are joining live, let us know if you have any questions. I'll be more than happy to answer them throughout the session or later at the end. So the number one thing I want to cover, 4 items I want to cover today. The number one thing is how to launch quietly, how to launch quietly without risking your job or burning your bridges. One of the biggest unspoken fears around starting a business isn't just failure, as I said earlier, it's what happens if someone at your job finds out? And you start to wonder, what if my manager sees my LinkedIn updates? What if my HR manager hears that I'm taking on some freelance work? What if it looks like I'm being disloyal? These are things I've experienced. These are things I've heard from others, including this person I just spoke with last week. And what I want to tell you is that you can launch quietly. You can protect what you've built so far. You can protect your current job and position at your company as you are building what comes next. And there are certain things I want you to keep in mind as you're going through this process. The first one is the legal aspect. So do your due diligence. Look for clauses around conflicts of interest, moonlighting, freelancing, IP ownership, things that maybe your company in the handbook or maybe on their website they have, and learn about the current agreements you have. If you have an employment agreement or if you have a contractor agreement, learn about the terms that you have already signed up for, right? Then you can ask if some of these terms are too technical, you know, all that legalese is confusing you, you know, obviously check with tools like Gemini or ChatGPT so that you understand the terms. And if you're still unsure, find a friend who's a lawyer and ask them, especially if they're in your state, because there's some state regulations that would differ from one state to another about conflict of interest and about non-competes and those sort of things. So if you don't have a friend or someone who can maybe you can quickly ask, Go on a platform like Upwork or others. I don't have any affiliations with any of these platforms, but they have— you can, you can hire a legal freelancer and, and have them answer your questions so that you have this, this peace of mind. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that in your new venture, I don't want you to use any company property, any IP, any tools, any systems, any documentation. The time you spend at the company should be to deliver, to meet the obligations that you have to your current employer, and, you know, take care of the things that you signed up to do for them, and do that till the very last minute that you leave that employment. You want to work hard, you want to take care of your obligations, you want to Leave on a great note, not just on a good note, and do make sure there's a transition plan whenever, whenever that, whenever, you know, you submit your resignation. But for now, make sure as you're building your new business, your separate business from where you're employed, don't use any of the company's property. So that's on the legal front. Now, on the practical side of things, The way you deal with it, the way you let people know, or maybe you don't, you withhold on letting people know, it's really going to depend a lot on the company culture and the relationship that you have with your manager and maybe your other line manager. If it's a healthy culture, an open culture, a transparent culture, you might be open and very transparent about your plans, you know, say, hey, I've reached a point in my life where I need to look for something different. So over the next 3 to 4 months, I will be working on building my own company. And I, and, and I think it's important to say that and share and give people— let them know what, what's going on through your mind. Let them know that you've got my full commitment. I'll be working as hard, and I'll be doing this business thing, this entrepreneurial thing, on my own dime, on my own time, after hours. It will not interfere with my obligations to you, and I will give you ample notice on when I'll be leaving. This is all— again, there's a lot of, a lot of— there's, there's a lot of situations where what I just described doesn't work. If you have a toxic work culture, people backstabbing, people looking for one thing that you did that they'll fire you, maybe then you do these— this opposite approach. You don't declare, I'm launching a business on day 1 or day 2, or maybe you do it right after you leave. So you can do a lot before you even sell and deliver a service, and that's where some of this non-compete or some of the legal things could hamper your effort, but you can do a lot before you do that, all the market research, all the business planning, All any sort of legal setup like your LLC, if you're ready to do that, all of that you can do before you even start talking to a customer or delivering a service. And in terms of getting ready to do so, you can start with a simple website that doesn't have any information about you. That's not ideal for a consultant, a service provider. You want to be there. You want to show your expertise. But initially in this phase, this transition phase from your full-time employment to, uh, to having your, your own business and to deal with this awkwardness of, of you doing something on the side and not wanting your employer to know. Uh, start, start with a simple website describing your service, the offer, the offer, uh, the, you know, the expertise of you, and maybe some— if you have, you have a business partner, you can do that. Or you can also update your LinkedIn profile and, and start maybe talking about issues in the industry that you are planning to serve. You're writing content that speaks to this audience. You know, you're not marketing a business. You're just establishing yourself as a thought leader, as an authority in this area, in this domain. And, and you're, you know, you're, you're offering this expertise. And that's, that's one of the great things about, you know, content marketing. And again, depending on your service, you could be doing things on on Instagram, you could be doing things on TikTok, you could be doing things on Facebook, it really doesn't matter. You can have a channel on YouTube to share, to add value and share how you solve problems for this target audience of yours. So this is on the practical thing, you have to really see what's going on in the company, like see if there's any precedence, how other people have done it, and deal with it with diligence, and one thing to hear before we move to the second point on validating your idea. I wanna say that I'm not a fan of moonlighting. I'm not a fan of freelancing for a long time. If you follow us, if you follow my channel, you follow what I write on LinkedIn, I'm about focus, about taking care of the one main thing. Later, as you get to that financial independence as you have your own business. You might have different businesses. That's a different thing. But initially, I'm, I'm a big fan of focusing on one hustle, the main hustle, whatever that is. But in this episode, we're talking about transitioning from your main hustle, your employment, to having your own business. So it's okay to do something on the side. to plan for the next move, to plan for to have your own business. But I'm not a fan, and we've covered this, and I have a video on this, and I have a long episode on, on how side hustling and freelancing for a long time while you have full-time employment is actually— it's detrimental to your career. It doesn't work out well in the end. So let me know if you have— if you think differently. You have Other thoughts on this? Love to hear from you. So that's on number one in terms of dealing with the situation at work. The second point is, and these are fears that I hear from, from the, from real genuine want-to-be entrepreneurs, how to validate an idea without getting stuck in research mode. And getting stuck in research mode is, is, is the key point here. Because that's where most founders, or founders-to-be, they get— that's where they get trapped. They keep on researching, they keep on studying, they keep on analyzing what might and what might not work instead of testing what does. And the person I spoke with had, had a very, very impressive background. They knew about systems, about processes, operations, about transformation in their vertical. But the mistake or the hesitation they had, the concern they had, and what's really holding them back is that they were aiming to sell to massive companies, universities, these Fortune 500 straight out of the gate. Again, in this case, this person is already working in Fortune 500 and they're familiar with how you sell, how you pitch, how you, um, how you service a Fortune 500. In your case, depending on the service that you're, you're launching, depending on the market you're launching, you might have a different scenario. But at times, the point here is that don't be stuck on the specific type of a client, on the ideal client you're looking for. That's initially. Later, I want you to be laser-focused on the target audience, on this persona, on this ICP, whatever acronym that you see online. This ideal client of yours, I want you to be laser-focused on it later. Initially, when you're figuring things out, don't have this ideal client that if I don't get, I won't even start a conversation. Because it's like trying to open a Michelin-star restaurant before you ever cooked a single dish for friends. So instead, If your target is to go after Fortune 500, for example, start with smaller businesses, maybe small to mid-sized companies that are often overwhelmed, understaffed, and desperately are in need of structure and processes that someone like you who has this Fortune 500 expertise can bring into these companies. And again, in your vertical, it could be something completely different. If you have done, for example, one type of service in your current employment and you have a lot of experience in it and you haven't done another service that you want to get into, the challenge is going to be getting clients in an area that you don't have any experience in. So you might, you know, I know someone who was in video editing and they want to go from working in journalism to go and work in something, a completely different type of work. And I said, and they want to go and work in actually Silicon Valley in one of the, you know, big companies. And I said, maybe a stepping stone would be to go and do video editing and video production for a big tech company. And once you're in and you're employed and you prove yourself and you do an amazing, amazing job, you can maybe then look for an internal transfer. So again, there are these different transitions that will depend on on what you're— where you are today and where you're looking to go. And in this step of validating the idea, you can use— I have this 10+5 approach. Identify 10 problems you know how to solve. You have skills, you have experience, you've been in corporate, or maybe you were laid off recently. You know, you have experience, right? Even if you're on the younger side, if you graduated from college a couple years ago and you're building your skills, you have, you've done things, right? So from the skills that you have, hard skills, soft skills, from your education, your certifications, identify 10 problems you know how to solve and you know how to do well, how to manage well, and then look for 5 industries or business types, business sizes, you know, geographies that likely have those problems. So if a company has a problem in automation, in AI adoption, and you're really— you're very checklist-oriented, you're very process-oriented, you're left brain, and you're great with tech— not the programmer, but you can handle tech really well— that might be an opportunity for you to go in and offer your services as an AI automation consultant, right? So the idea here, I don't want to go into the different industries, but let me know if you have a question about your industry and you're not sure how to identify the business idea. Let me know. I'll be more than happy to help you vet it. But the idea here is that to start reaching out, ask these potential people, people you know, or maybe people you kind of come across in an industry event or in a networking event or a local meetup or maybe a virtual meetup, start— reaching out, start asking questions about the problem to validate if these are real problems, and ask what they've tried, what, what vendors they've worked with, what is it that they did not like with those vendors. This way you can find maybe an area where you can stand out. Maybe you can deliver cheaper, you can deliver the same service faster with higher quality, with better documentation, with better maybe premium care, whatever the case might be. Find what's missing and and then you are the problem solver and you are the one, the trusted advisor that people will come to to help them solve their problems. And this is really in this phase, it's not about selling, it's about listening. And you don't need, again, the idea does not have to be perfect at the time. You just need to have a real idea, a real solution to problems people have. So, and this will take time. And when I say reach out, for me, it's easy. I've been doing it for a long time. When we started our very first business, it was very difficult. It was very awkward. It was it was something that I I feared something that I was I was very nervous on the inside, and people probably sensed it because it was new. It's just like anything else new that we do. If you don't do the reps, you won't get better at it. And the first step is to take that first step and start doing some reps, and you'll get better. This idea of networking, of outreaching, of speaking to others over time. And this also leads me— this leads me to the 3rd point for today, and it's about how to attract your first client even if your brand is still a Google Doc. And I say this with love, your first client is not going to care about your branding. If you have branding, it's a plus, but you don't need that. You don't need a website, you don't need a logo, you don't need to spend weeks figuring out your 4-tier pricing page. I have a whole course on pricing, check it out by the way if you're, if you're stuck on pricing. I have a full article on the 7 different pricing models for, for consulting and service providers. So, so that's, that's just a side note. But clients don't care about the website, the logo, the— your 4-tier pricing page. What they care about is, can this person help me solve my problem? Do I trust them? Is this worth the investment? These are the things that clients care about. That's it. And the person I spoke with had incredible thought leadership. They speak, they, they get involved in speaking engagements, they've written articles, they publish papers, they have deep expertise in their domain, but none of it was about to turn into paid work. Why? Because they weren't asking for it. They weren't starting to do outreach. They weren't developing a list of potential prospects. They were not making calls. Again, this is not to harp on them or to give them a hard time. It's just part of entrepreneurship is doing uncomfortable things. There's no way, there's no way to, there's just no way to build something meaningful while staying safe and doing comfortable things. Establishing, building meaningful things in life, in business, requires us to take that step and try doing something uncomfortable. Talking to strangers about the service that you have, the service that you offer, is not easy, but nothing worthwhile in life is or in business is easy. Nothing worthwhile in life or in business is easy, but start doing this outreach. Make a list of 25 people in your network who know you, who know your work ethic, who trust you, and then reach out with one question. I'm looking to help businesses with, insert a problem. Do you know anyone that would— this service would be useful for, whether it's process automation, whether it's— home decor, whatever the professional service that you have, ask these questions and start learning from your network, people who trust you, who know you, who are willing to help out. You know, you're not pitching, you're just asking for information, for offer potentially, you're asking for a connection to someone in your network that could, who could be a really a, it could be a goldmine of information of problems they're facing and no other service provider is currently addressing. So don't be afraid of reaching out and there's no formula, there's no magic to it, it's just coming up with the list of people you think know about the problem you're trying to solve or they have connections with people you want to sell to and start a conversation. This is what it is at this phase, it's not a pitch, And by the way, selling is not a dirty word. We have a video on this. You are adding value, are helping people, you're solving problems, you're helping people achieve their goals. So that is what you're doing. So you have to push yourself a little bit to do uncomfortable things, but on the other side, you'll get to know more about the clients, you'll know more about the competition, you'll learn more about pricing. You'll learn more about the market and you'll be better equipped to start that business, launch it and grow it and grow it big. So these first clients, which is the point here I'm emphasizing, they won't come from sort of hard selling, hard pitching, kind of converting the way maybe we think of sales. They'll come from conversations. Because they'll buy from your credibility, not from your logo. And, and which, which all bring me to this last point today, and this is the real killer. It's fear. It's the fear of failure, the fear of starting, the fear of getting into motion, because we all get stuck on fear. We fear of getting things wrong. We fear of being seen. We fear of trying and having it not work. But here's what I told this person that I spoke with last week: you're never going to feel 100% ready. And the goal here is not to eliminate the fear. As they say, courage is is not the absence of fear. It is dealing with this fear, is proceeding while you have this fear, is containing that fear, because the goal is to act anyway. The goal is to act while you have that concern or that fear, you know, instead of those, those voices inside of your head telling you that you'll fail, people will make fun of you, you know, what do I tell my, my, my kids, my business partner, my, my life partner, what do I tell my ex-coworkers that I started this new business and struggled. Yes, you tell them that, that I struggled, I worked really hard, I learned from my mistakes. And then you prove that— you not prove them wrong, but you show them that with perseverance, with hard work, with learning, you've made it. Again, success is not guaranteed, despite what all these thumbnails on YouTube tell you. Success is not guaranteed, but by following these tips, by listening to people who have been to where you want to go, to these advisors, coaches, whatever you want to call them, to these strategies and tips and advice, if you apply this learning, you are increasing your chances of succeeding. This is what it's all about because success is not guaranteed. But my goal, my mission is to help you increase the likelihood of success and also getting to your destination faster and then with less gray hair. Okay, you'll have some, but less hopefully. So, um, this is really what, what I wanted to cover is, is you have to start taking those first steps. You have to Block the time, 2 hours a day, 1 hour a day at least. If you're serious about starting something on the side, you have to commit to action and choose motion over perfection. So build that website, update that profile, message 5 people, test 1 offer. That's all you have to do, one step at a time. Business isn't about grand openings. It's about consistent steps that you take one step at a time, one step at a time. So to wrap it up, we've covered 4 points. A lot of it, a lot of these points have to do with the fear, with the concerns that we have. So by coming up with a strategy to start planning for your business while you have full employment, by vetting the idea, by reaching out to people to test your offer, by combating, controlling the fear that we all have, you'll be on your way to start this business that you've been wanting to start, to get on this entrepreneurial journey, and hopefully to get to your destination, as I said earlier, with less challenges, with less ulcers, with less gray hair, but you'll get there, and then once you reach that point of financial freedom and you've built a company and a culture that you're proud of and a team that has been there with you from day one, it's going to feel great. It's going to be— it's going to allow you to make up for maybe some of the sacrifices that you had to make in terms of maybe one less hobby, one less outing, one less trip. All of that will come on the other side of— committing to starting a business and working hard toward making it a success. That's it for today. Uh, if again, if you have any questions, any comments, reach out on any of the platforms. And if you're liking this content, don't forget to click the like button, to share this livestream, this video, to leave us a comment, and to subscribe or to follow depending on the platform you're on. And I'd be I'd be more than happy again to answer specific questions, especially for those of you who are really stuck on taking that first step. You know, before you jump and take the leap, I know a lot is going through people's minds, so don't hesitate to reach out. And before we leave, for those of you who have listened all the way to this point, we do have a couple of things. The YouTube channel that I mentioned earlier, feel free to follow, to subscribe, to hit the like button, and also check out our blackbeltstartup.com website where we have our digital products. We have a curriculum and a full curriculum on entrepreneurship, how to start, how to grow, how to scale. We have a training and a coaching program that provides office hours if you have questions along your journey, in addition to the video content that we have, and we have a course on pricing. So all these things are available to you. with actually a special promotion, BBSU20, Black Belt Startup 20, that is. So BBSU20 is 20% off on all things we— you have access to that are available on blackbeltstartup.com. All right, again, if you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, we'll see you next time. Thank you.