Money Blocks When You're Just Starting Out in Business

Starting a business is one of the most vulnerable things you can do.

You put your ideas, your identity, and often your savings on the line before you have any proof that it's going to work. And right in the middle of that vulnerability, your money blocks show up in full force.

Stage 1 of business is what I call Starting Out. You are the business. You're focused on finding customers, doing everything yourself, and navigating an emotional rollercoaster that swings between pure terror and genuine elation, sometimes within the same hour.

Here's what tends to come up at this stage, and what to do about it.

The courage to call yourself what you are

This is often the very first money block in business, and it's subtler than it looks.

I remember changing my email signature to say "Denise Duffield-Thomas, Coach and Author" and absolutely cringing. I felt like a fraud. Like someone was going to see it and call me out. But seeing those words every day started shifting something inside me.

If you're at the start of your business and you can't even say your title out loud yet, try this: put it in your email signature. Just that. You'll see it every day, and slowly you'll start to believe it.

Getting your first client and charging for them

Working for free to get experience is fine when you're starting out. But there comes a point where the line between "building experience" and "blocking your income" gets blurry.

If you can't ask for money for your work, that is a money block. It's not modesty, it's not being realistic, it's a pattern that will follow you to every income level if you don't start catching it now.

The fix is simple, even if it doesn't feel that way: pick a number. Any number. Charge it. See what happens.

Crowdsourcing your pricing

This one is so common. You ask your friends, your Facebook group, your followers: "What do you think I should charge for this?"

Here's the problem: you have no idea what money blocks the people answering that question have. If you base your prices on their answers, you inherit their blocks. Set your own price. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be yours.

Imposter syndrome and the fraud feeling

Almost universal at Stage 1. You feel like you haven't earned the right to do this yet. You feel like the moment someone pays you, they'll realize you don't know what you're talking about.

You're not alone in this. I've seen it in thousands of entrepreneurs across every niche and income level. And the only way through it is to keep showing up anyway.

The entrepreneurial rollercoaster

One day it's "oh my god this is the best decision I've ever made." The next it's "I should just get a normal job, at least that would be predictable."

Both are normal. Neither means you're doing it wrong. This is just what Stage 1 feels like.

What helps at this stage

Say yes to most things. At Stage 1, not many people are asking anyway. Get started. Get a client. See if you like it. Don't get so caught up in whether this is your forever business that you never actually test it.

And know that the things that scare you right now, the first blog post, the first sale, the first price conversation, won't be the things that scare you at Stage 2. You'll have new things to be scared of by then. But you'll also have evidence that you can move through fear and keep going.

If you want to understand the specific money blocks that might be running your business right now, grab my free training: The 7 Most Common Money Blocks and How to Clear Them.

Watch it free at denisedt.com/blocks

Read next in the series: Money Blocks in Stage 2: Survival

Or go back to the full guide: Money Blocks at Every Stage of Business

It's your time, and you're ready for the next step.

xx Denise