Having Cold Feet About Starting Your Fashion Brand? Here Are 5 Lessons From Fashion Entrepreneurs On Overcoming Fear

Starting a fashion business comes with a myriad of emotions. There’s excitement, hope, nervousness, doubt, and fear, amongst others. Fear is one emotion that can paralyse and make the dream of having your own fashion brand seem too hard to achieve. So, it must be overcome. 

“Fear is the brain’s way of saying that there is something to overcome.” – Rachel Huber.

This week we reviewed a video by Desola of Daisy’s Wardrobe on ‘How to Overcome Fear When Starting a New Business.’ In it, she spoke about her journey and how she was able to overcome the fear most entrepreneurs face before and at the start of a new business.

The video aims to help fashion entrepreneurs know what to do when fear comes knocking so they can have the courage to overcome it. 

The review will cover;

• how effective and practical the points are for Nigerian fashion designers, and
• important points she missed out.

Useful Points For Fashion Designers

Feelings of fear and doubt are two of the most common emotions aspiring fashion entrepreneurs face, especially those who are considering leaving a 9 – 5 paid employment job for the entrepreneurship journey.

These fears bring questions like, ‘Will I be able to survive?’, ‘Will I be able to run the business?’, ‘Will I be able to earn as much money as I do now?’, ‘Will I be able to pay my bills?’ to mind. While these questions are valid, often, they cause cold feet and make you want to stay where you are regardless of how much you want to start your business. 

Having cold feet is normal. Fear is normal. If you do not have those doubts and cold feet, then you are not human. The fear and doubts are what motivate you most of the time and push you to work and achieve your goals.

You will always have questions about finance and setting up your business, but;

1. Start Where You Are

Start with whatever you have. There will never be a perfect time to start. If you want to wait for everything to be perfect before you start then you will never start. When you wait for that thing you have in mind to be available and perfect, when it happens, another thing will come up. 

With whatever it is that you have, just start. 

For her, amidst the strain of taking care of a sick child, having her salary slashed and having to live off her savings, she started the business – not the way she wanted to, but she started. 

2. Stop Overthinking Things

Fear and doubt are in your mind and because you are overthinking it, it gets magnified.

Stop overthinking everything.

When you think about it, what is the worst that can happen? If you start the business and it does not work out, what is the worst that can happen? Does it make you a failure? Absolutely no. 

If your business does not work out the way you did it, it just tells you that there is a better way to do things. It does not make you a failure. If you do not get enough money to pay your bills and do all the things you want to do, it is going to push you to try harder. 

Businesses take shape in different ways. When you start your business, things might not be perfect and you might not have all you need to start, but you have started. The fact that you have started will bring customers to you one way or the other, and who knows, you might find a breakthrough there. 

Just start as you are and stop overthinking things. 

Important Points Missed Out

We spoke with 2 fashion designers to get their opinion on overcoming fear when starting a business and they had great points to share with us. Mariam Oluwaseyi is the Founder and Creative Director of Mayborhyme Clothing Brand and Anthonia B. Fabeku is the Founder and Creative Director of The Bamdel Fashion. 

1. Work on Your Self-Confidence

Fear has a way of eating at a person’s self-confidence levels. To overcome that fear of starting a new business, you need to work on your self-confidence level, both as an individual and as a fashion entrepreneur. 

Building your self-confidence can be by speaking positive words to yourself at all times, taking courses to make yourself better in your field or by working on your flaws.

“I had the fear of not being accepted, not being good enough, and not being seen as relevant in a saturated market when I started. I overcame them by having confidence in myself and taking courses – which I still do” – Mariam Oluwaseyi. 

2. Understand Your Unique Selling Point

Many times, fear comes in when you do not see how your fashion brand is different from all others. As a fashion designer, you need to understand the unique selling point of your fashion brand and leverage it. 

The fact that you are different from every other person on earth also means that something will differentiate your fashion brand from all others. 

“At the start of my business, I feared that I will not be as good as those I looked up to in the industry and that since other people are doing the same thing as me, who is not so social, I will not be able to get customers. But, along the line, I discovered my outfits have a different touch that appeals to certain people and so I leveraged that and got the courage to put my items out.” – Anthonia B. Fabeku.

3. Draw Encouragement from Family and Friends

“Having a  great community of support and love from family, friends, and even clients helped me overcome the fears I had.” – Mariam Oluwaseyi.

Knowing that you have the support of others is one thing that can help you overcome the fear of starting your fashion business. Drawing from the encouragement of others can work wonders in helping you start what you were previously too scared to try out. 

“Encouragement from friends and family helped me overcome my fears.” – Anthonia B. Fabeku

The Effectiveness of the Information to fashion Entrepreneurs

​​​​​​The information shared in the video is very useful and practicable for fashion entrepreneurs in Nigeria. It takes the issue of fear head-on and provides useful information from experience. 

There you have it, 5 ways to overcome the fears that come with starting a new business. Which are you going to try out? Do let us know in the comments section below and don’t forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons if you enjoyed this read.