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Lack of Confidence can plague small business owners

You immediately notice when someone is confident. They enter the room, and people pay attention. They have a way about them that gets people interested. If you want to become confident yourself, why not follow people who are confident already?

As a business coach for over 10 years, one thing that I’ve noticed is that small business owners are plagued with a lack of confidence.  Some times that low confidence is in themselves and sometimes it is lack of confidence in their business; particularly lack of confidence that their business could be grown to gain scale.  So the topic of building confidence is of major interest to me and to many of my clients.

The next time you spot a confident person, take notice of how they behave. Start by observing how they speak to others. Do they seem like they are listening? Confident people don’t have anything to prove, so they won’t try to hog the conversation. They will let others speak.

Confident People ask Questions

Another trait of confident people is they ask questions. This seems counterintuitive as you would think they know everything. But, they don’t. They know when it’s necessary to ask when they don’t know the answer. People lacking confidence often pretend like they know all the answers, even at the risk of giving the wrong information. If you don’t know something, look it up or ask.

What else can you notice about confident people who you follow? They probably are calm and don’t overreact. Their confidence lets them realize there are solutions and they just need to be flushed out or figured out. 

Confident Body Language 

As you observe pay close attention to their body language as well. This is an important aspect of communication and by emulating some of what they do, you can project your confidence to others. Don’t try to force something just because you saw someone else doing it. Make it as natural as possible. Use a mirror if you are unsure how it will look or practice on people who you know, like family members.

The closer you can get to a confident person, the more you will likely see them so that you can observe them. So if the person you are observing is available to you, you might offer to buy them lunch or schedule an appointment with them. You might consider joining organizations or causes that they are involved in. 

People tend to take on traits naturally the more they are exposed to them. When you hang out with people who are better than you at certain skills, like sports or music, etc., you tend to become better at them. It’s no different with confident people. You will take on the traits of theirs that you find desirable and want to make them part of your personality. It’s important to do it in a natural way.

If you are a business owner and aware of how your lack of confidence is negatively affecting your business, please reach out to see how we might be able to help you.