Scared to pull the trigger?

I think that many startup web hosts face a certain problem. Pulling the trigger to turn the business live and get real customers. You are preparing your website to look great and to be fully functional but are you ready to pull the trigger mentally? Starting a new business and getting ready for launch is relatively easy. You are not inter-acting with clients. You deal with peers or service providers for your business only. How will it be when you go live? How will customers react to your website, your level of support and your products? Are they critical? Are they fair? Will they be impressed or bothered? What if they don’t like you? How about your competition? You heard horror stories of competitors signing up with other web hosts to find out about their service and find weaknesses or ‘steal’ ideas.

Or these new-to-be web hosts are trying to do everything 110% and never move along with their project. You hear about progress they make but if you put every step of them onto a map you can see that they are running around in circles. The website gets re-designed and they switch reseller accounts the 3rd time. You think that the situation should improve until they make the next surprise move – one step up and two steps back. I think it is another sign of someone scared to pull the trigger.

Many doubts might be going on in your head when the moment of truth is coming closer. How are you going to handle this at all? What about when you are sleeping and your first order comes in. Will the customer wait the 6 hours until you wake up to setup his account? What if this is one of these fraudulent orders that you hear about? What if you are being charged-back by the credit card company? And so on …. Can you stand the pressure? CAN YOU STAND THE PRESSURE?

Prepare yourself mentally for the big moment. If you don’t you will face sleepless nights or nightmares when sleeping or both. Get your spirit ready. Be available. Fact is – probably nothing will happen within the first few days anyway. Nobody knows that your business exists. Your advertising is just out there for a day or two. Maybe a few friends and family surfing your site + the occasional other web host.

I’ve been in that situation. I know how it feels. At the 3rd day I eagerly sign-up myself just to test the functionality of the sign-up page. I went through the whole cycle and made things work. If nothing happens the doubtful thoughts will sneak into your mind. This is where you have to be prepared. You know you tested your website 25 times and it worked every time. Why should it stop working now? You know it takes only 3 or 4 clicks on your site to see the products and features and to get to the sign-up form. Why should that suddenly change? Program yourself. You know you can do it. You know that everything works. Program yourself to remember this. You will need your strength for other things – there is no room for doubts if you want to be successful. If you are scared to pull the trigger find out why. Knowing what stops you is the first step into the right direction.

I am in business almost 3 years now. I moved away from trying to be a full-time web host for personal reasons. Some people see this as a sign of weakness. But starting a business means trying. You don’t know how it is until you try. You don’t know if you really like it down the road. Trying is not a sign of weakness. The only thing to regret is if you never try. I re-defined my business model and feel much better now. I learned from experience. It is much easier now for me to pull the trigger when getting a new project ready for take-off. Pull the trigger – but program yourself for the moment.

Good Luck.

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