Business Planning for Women Entrepreneurs

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• 'Mindset Is Everything' When Starting A Business, Author Says

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  When a person is starting a business, “mindset is everything,” according to Natalie MacNeil, an Emmy Award-winner and author of the book “The Conquer Kit.”

  “I believe that personal growth and business growth go hand in hand,” said MacNeil. “If you have so much self-doubt and you don’t have the confidence to build a business, that is going to affect your success and your ability to actually grow.”

  When consulting entrepreneurs, MacNeil gets people to identify their doubts, or what she calls “dragons.” Dragons, she said, are moments of self-doubt all people encounter at one point or another — and one of the biggest “dragons” she sees for entrepreneurs is the fear of failure.

  To help them overcome that, MacNeil has people walk through how that idea, which is a limiting one, affects every area of life.

  “I say, ‘How do you think that belief affects your business?’” she said. “For starters, they’re not taking action toward their goals because they’re afraid of failing and getting criticized for creating what they really want to create.”

  To go a step further, she said, when a person isn’t taking action, they can end up in a stagnant place. That causes frustration, which can lead to even more doubts and other issues.

  “One limiting belief can do so much damage and really hold you back from growing the business,” she said.

  Macneil said that to help entrepreneurs turn “dragons” around, she has them create what she calls a “limitless belief.” For example, in response to a fear of failure, she suggests people become open to believing in success beyond a person’s wildest dreams.

  “I’ll get people to write that on a sticky note or … something that they can put somewhere where they will see it every single day to just remind themselves of that and to start to recreate that through pattern,” she said.

  “Slaying Your Dragons” is featured as an exercise in the new interactive book, which MacNeil said she wrote for both new and veteran entrepreneurs as a guide to mindset, money management, team-building, and other aspects of business management.