This blog is being written in response to a Help A Reporter Out (HARO) request by Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Excerpts from this blog will appear in a TPE article. Without further ado, below are fears for entrepreneurs to flush away with the new year.

TOP STARTUP OFFICER FEAR TO FLUSH AWAY: CHANGE

The huge fear for entrepreneurs is complete failure and going broke. My former employer (Lehman) took care of that in 2008! My top fear is no longer exhausting my savings or bruising my pride; it’s something more obscure. As a change agent, I fear that my real-substance methodologies may be too early in the cycle and will have a hard time gaining momentum vs. the flashy promises of others. By exposing this fear and remaining self confident, I can now tear it off the roll and flush away.

5 OTHER STARTUP FEARS & HOW TO WIPE THEM AWAY:

FEAR: Spending too much time on small revenue assignments and miss the opportunity to work on a huge cornerstone project.
RESOLUTION: Plan out how you want your client base to be segmented. The old standby 80/20 rule will help. Also, stay away from toxic client. They are the ones that call or email every few hours, typically refuse to acknowledge your best ideas, and like to reinvent the wheel.

FEAR: Putting all my eggs in one client basket and learning that they run of cash before I get fully paid.
RESOLUTION: Due diligence. Make sure you have good contracts with clear understanding of timing and size of payments. When appropriate, ask for sizable deposits and keep payments rolling with a percent of completion methodology. Use a good invoicing system and consider accepting credit cards.

FEAR: Taking on too many projects, getting overwhelmed, and neglecting my personal growth.
RESOLUTION: A strong project team and a stronger family support system are imperative. Entrepreneurs don’t get sick days. Maintain a healthy work-life balance. Eat and sleep; one without the other is a recipe for meltdown. Personally I like to run in Central Park and use 5K races to keep me sane.

FEAR: Wasting money on services that I either rarely use or don’t fully understand how to maximize utility.
RESOLUTION: Don’t spend the next incremental dollar until you really need the upgrade. Free works a lot too. Generally speaking, if it’s a ‘must-have’ then focus on evaluating the 2nd most expensive. If it’s a ‘wanna-have’ then target the 2nd least expensive for consideration. Then let rationalization take over. When in doubt, ask for demos and see if your peers are using similar services.

FEAR: Putting too much emphasis on monetizing my ownership stake and forgetting to pay myself a reasonable and regular salary.
RESOLUTION: Business Planning 101. Figure out what your time is worth and develop a revenue strategy to eventually pay yourself what you deserve. Whatever the number, pay yourself 50% of it during a ramp up phase of development. Once you have enough revenue to cover other employees and overhead, scale yourself up to the full amount.