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When you’re struggling in business, it’s easy to see yourself wrapped in chains, struggling to break free from failure. What if I told you the key to those chains might be located within your own mind? If you’re ready to step out into freedom, let’s look at how your beliefs might be inhibiting the success you crave.

Inhibiting Belief Number One: Nice People Don’t Do Sales
Whether your product is coaching or castor oil, you’re going to have to sell it to someone else to be successful. For many entrepreneurs, the commitment to success ends when it comes time to actually market their products. They’re great at visualizing, designing and creating products, but they’d really rather not have to ask someone to buy them.

The underlying belief keeping them from success may be that “Nice People Don’t Do Sales.” Before you discount that entirely, consider the stereotypes you’ve heard about used car or door-to-door salesmen. Society, in general, has embraced the notion that selling is somehow unsavory.

Here’s the truth that will unlock your chains: Some of the nicest people you know are in sales! They’re the business owners who find the people best served by their products and make them available at a reasonable price. They’re the gifted folks who’ve developed ways of helping others succeed and are reaching out to a grateful audience in return for a fee.

Learning to market your products effectively makes you a savvy business owner, period. Free yourself from the notion that offering quality products for a reasonable price is anything other than good business.

Inhibiting Belief Number Two: Asking for Money is Rude
In a fantasy world, we could have anything we’d like without having to pay for it. In the real world, we expect to pay for the things we need and want. The products you’ve worked so hard to create are no different. Reasonable people expect you to ask for money when you deliver the goods.

Here’s probably what’s at the root of your anxiety, if you somehow feel rude when quoting a price—someone along the way, a parent, perhaps, told you it was rude to talk about money.

Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff…bragging about how much money you make at a dinner party may be rude, but quoting a price to a customer to complete a transaction is what’s at the core of every business.

Inhibiting Belief Number Three: Entrepreneurs Don’t Have “Real” Jobs
Here’s one that’s pervasive in Western cultures. From the time they start school, youngsters are guided toward “real” jobs like being accountants, doctors or attorneys. The problem is that many people feel a pull to own a business and serve the public some other way.

Striking out in the world of entrepreneurship can be lonely if friends and family keep asking when you’re going to find a “real job.” If you’re struggling to become successful marketing your products or services, you may have doubts that what you’re doing is legitimate.

Here’s a reality check: if you’ve created quality products and are offering them in ethical ways to serve the needs of others, you have a “real” job! You’re part of what keeps economies growing. As a business owner and entrepreneur, you’re in great company with others who are willing to take big risks for big payoffs.

If you begin to doubt yourself, and thereby sabotage your own success, consider the contribution pioneers in technology and industry have made. I’m willing to bet someone, somewhere along the way, told each of them to “get a real job” instead of working past obstacles and creating their own success.

Marketing and sales are what keeps the business world turning. Nice people all around you ask other people for money in return for great products. And being an entrepreneur is as real as it gets in the world of business. Free yourself from the self-sabotaging beliefs that can keep you from enjoying success. Stop apologizing and start enjoying the benefits of being the best at what you do.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Does your new business really need a presence there? That question may make you cringe, if you’re afraid of falling behind when it comes to social media.  Step back and relax; you may be experiencing “social networking envy” unnecessarily. While social media sites can be marvelous marketing tools, there’s more work to be done first to build the business of your dreams.

Distraction or Smart Strategy?

Spending a lot of time on Facebook lately? Used correctly, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for marketing. Many online entrepreneurs are mining real gold from social networking. But those same social networking sites can be a huge distraction if you’re not careful. The key is in finding the proper balance.

Those “tweets”, Facebook status updates and LinkedIn requests, if not part of a deliberate marketing strategy, are just one more thing that pulls you away from the groundwork that supports a successful business.

What Is Your Strategy?

Before you devote a lot of time to creating a social media presence, you must first focus your efforts on building a solid business strategy. Spend the time necessary to create your unique business proposition. Why should someone want to do business with you, specifically?

Being able to hone your offer down to two or three sentences can have tremendous impact on your marketing success. As a new business owner, the time you spend clarifying what you’re offering and why it’s unique will be the foundation of all future marketing.

Once you’ve created your most succinct offer, begin to strategize how you’ll find customers. Lending your focus to tasks like these will result in long-term success. It’s possible you’ll incorporate social networking somewhere along the way, but a well-rounded marketing plan that includes many ways to attract customers is smart business.

Creating a comprehensive business strategy is your best possible use of time. By all means, stay abreast of current marketing trends, but focus first on building a sturdy foundation for that marketing. Spend less time worrying about what everyone else is doing and more time investing the hard work all successful business owners do when growing a business.

Make a Plan

There are several things you can do to keep social media and other “shiny objects” from sabotaging your success:

•    Set a deadline for developing your offer and marketing strategy.
•    Never work without a schedule to keep yourself on track.
•    Set short-term goals for implementing new marketing ideas.
•    Set aside time each day to review your progress.
•    Plan a set time each day to work with social media as part of your overall marketing strategy.

Social networking sites are a wonderful way to stay connected to potential clients near and far. They are also, unfortunately, a major distraction for new business owners working without a plan. The temptation to dive into social media marketing prematurely can be avoided by recognizing its role in your overall marketing plan.

Make the decision to focus your time on developing your unique business proposition. Set goals and monitor your progress regularly. Implement new marketing ideas, which may include a presence in social networking, once you’ve clarified your unique business proposition. In that way, you’ll develop a genuine business network that will sustain your company long-term.