vs.  

When attending business networking events, it is common to be asked by people you meet: “So how’s your business going?”

If you have clients under your belt and are chugging along steadily, or if you’re doing incredibly well, that’s an easy one to answer.

What if you are still in the first few years of business and your results are patchy, you are still finding your feet, and your client list and income level are far from what you have set for yourself?

Won’t enthusiastically replying “I’m doing fantastic!” be telling an untruth?

I asked this question of my Facebook community today.

Specifically, I asked them the chicken-and-egg question: do you wait for evidence of success to start acting like a successful business owner, or start acting from Day One as if you expect to succeed?

Not surprisingly, they voted unanimously for the latter.

Act like you are already successful, and you will attract (or “manifest”) your ideal clients.

This is Law of Attraction 101, BUT not everyone is comfortable doing this.

You see, our mind, body and spirit need to work together and be in harmony, or one element will sabotage the other(s). We may “know” the Law of Attraction intellectually, but to consistently project ourselves as successful, worthy, and capable and deserving of working with the best clients requires us to see ourselves as a certain calibre of person that we may not feel we are yet.

Hence the chicken-and-egg dilemma that confronts so many earnest and sincere business owners who come from a culture of non-self-promotion. We need to see proof before we will put ourselves out there 100% and proclaim to the world that we are successful. Proof means having paid clients, making enough to pay the bills and more, and (ultimately) not having to worry about money. Not having clients or not making money means we are not yet successful, so we lower our voices, try not to draw attention to ourselves, and cringe when given a chance to blow our own trumpets.

Round and round we go.

The awkwardness comes from knowing that there is still a gap between where we are and where we desire to be.

How do we narrow this gap?

Louise Hay recommends blessing every circumstance, person, and thing in your life, no matter how bleak (your phone, your bills, your boss).

In doing so, you focus on the positive and on the limitless possibility and potential in all things, and you declare that you are ready and open to receiving what is good and desirable.

So you can start by blessing the people you meet at your networking meetings (because who knows who they might connect you with), the questions you get from friends and contacts (because it gives you an opportunity to perfect your “Who I am and what I do” speech), and the flexibility of your schedule (because it is not yet packed to the brim with clients and consultations, and you have time for coffee chats with friends, exercise, and leisure).

If this sounds like hard work, it is.

Becoming a business owner is a journey of change and innovation that starts with shifting perceptions, adjusting attitudes, and letting go of ingrained habits and limiting beliefs. It is a process of unlearning and relearning. More than that, it is about growing to become the person you need to be, to succeed in your business.