Feel the fear....then do it anyway

Things are a little stagnant over at The Quail Garden. For those that don't know, it's our family business that's based around selling chicken and quail eggs (and soon to be actual birds too!), with a heart to create an open farm that employs people who struggle to get decent work. It's a dream that has been on our hearts for a long time and when we opened in January we were on fire for it. Things moved quickly and we've grown from 8 quail to 80, selling enough to break even and showcasing our products at open days and events in just under 6 months, but the next step to drive us into profit means I need to start finding caterers/local businesses to stock our eggs and I am PETRIFIED.


The idea of phoning a catering company and trying to sell a product scares the life out of me. My fear of rejection clearly goes so deep that even a 'no' from a supplier feels too much. It's ridiculous, and I know it's ridiculous but I've put off this task for almost a month now - which doesn't bode well for a business woman in training. A lot of it comes from a fear of not being able to present myself well. I'm pretty good at 'blagging it', but this is an area that I have little experience in and we're learning as we go here. What happens if they ask me a question using terminology I don't understand? What if I've got my cost margins completely out of whack? When I'm face to face with someone I find I'm much better able to handle the situation but a cold call over the phone? That stuffs much harder, and unfortunately a lot of these businesses require you to call rather than schedule meetings.

I'm going to do this though. I NEED to. How are we ever going to get anywhere if I don't face this fear? I need to start being more bold and confident. We've been entrusted with this dream and I need to handle it responsibly!


I have started going for it straight away. If you've been following me on Instagram (@holliethehousewife), you'll know that we've adopted a stray cat so we popped into our local pet store to get the essentials tonight and I noticed eggs on the counter. Free range chicken and duck eggs. "Aha!", I thought, "an opportunity!" and I dived right in with my sales pitch. A trial sample of eggs is going in store tomorrow. Now we just have to pray that they fly off the shelves and a regular stock of the product occurs. Small steps to becoming a better business woman.

It's really scary being your own boss. I'm not relying on anyone else here to do the work, and there's no one to fix the problem if I don't pluck up the courage to do it. I used to think I was someone who wasn't really scared of things but I've realised it's not the outward looking stuff that freaks me out, it's all the stuff that points internally. For someone who loves attention, you'd think I'd be able to handle rejection a lot better, but nope, I think it's possibly my biggest fear.


This is me standing up and making a change though. I don't want to be someone who fears that anymore - how am I ever going to progress in life if that's my main fear? I may as well pack all this up and forget about it. I don't want to be held back by myself anymore so I'm going to be brave and do what I've been putting off for so long, EVEN if it means being rejected by every company out there.

Feel the fear....then do it anyway.

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