There comes a time in all of our careers that we need to take a risk in business. Speaking from experience, as someone who tends to identify as risk-averse, I sometimes wish it was easier for me to take risks in business and in life.
Fortunately, running a business has forced me to face my fear of taking risks over and over again. First, there was that whole quitting my job thing to be a full-time blogger. Talk about taking a risk!
I’ve taken other risks in business as well, the most notable one being what I am now dubbing The Great Rebrand of 2015. I knew I needed a rebrand, I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. I went for it anyway.
Fast forward a year and a half later and I’m making more money than ever. My site was also nominated as one of the best-designed personal finance blogs of the year.
In other words, the risk paid off.
Here are some of the ways to tell whether or not it’s time for you to take a risk in business.
Your gut is screaming at you.
When it comes to taking a risk, my intuition is usually pretty spot on.
My intuition in business is one of my super powers. I’ve been very blessed with a very loud and persistent gut instinct. (Granted, I’m sure years of practicing yoga and meditation has helped me become a little more in tune with it.)
When it was time for The Great Rebrand of 2015, my gut wouldn’t leave me alone. I had a nagging feeling that I needed to do this. Every day for months, there was this thought in the back of my mind that I needed to drop half the ideas I had for my business and focus on a rebrand first.
You can see yourself pulling it off.
I may not have known exactly how I was going to pay for a rebrand (and upgrading all the back-end systems at the same time), but I could see myself pulling it off. I knew things would be tight for a while (and they were), but I also believed that if I just came out the other side of it then I’d be fine.
Note, this is far different than wishing you could pull something off. I had money coming in. I had client work. I just needed to trust myself in figuring out how to use that money to pay for a rebrand on top of the regular operating expenses.
If you can accept responsibility if it doesn’t work out.
When we take a risk in business, it’s very easy to be afraid of failing. This fear usually keeps people from acting.
I’ve found that the solution to this is to play out the worst case scenario in your head. If you know what the worst case scenario is you’ll either realize it’s not that bad or you can come up with a Plan B.
In my case, the worst case scenario was I would have to accept the responsibility of taking on debt. While it’s not exactly what I wanted, it’s not the worst thing in the world. Once I realized that, I knew I had to go for it and take a risk with my rebrand.
Have you taken a risk in business? How did you know it was time? Share in the comments and let us know.
