Believe in yourself

The most outstanding gift you can give yourself is to believe in yourself. Believing in yourself gives you the power to accomplish many things.

Believing in yourself means you respect yourself and take care of your mind, body and emotions. It means you trust your instincts and feelings. It means that you are not only directed as you travel along the road of life, you are the builder of that road.

This feeling of believing in self and feeling confident, is the motivating principle of a successful entrepreneur's make-up. I have seen many intelligent entrepreneurs with great business ideas fail because they did not truly believe in their own abilities. I have also witnessed many individuals with lesser skills; education and experience succeed and earn above-average incomes as business owners.

With today's corporate climate and continual downsizing and lay-offs, it is more important than ever to be in your own business.

Sometimes confidence and belief in self can be rattled when you embark on a first time venture such as starting your own business. That's the very reason that owning a franchise may be just the solution to assist you in building and maintaining confidence and belief in yourself.

Franchisers being the prudent businesspeople that they are have considered many of the obstacles that the new entrepreneur faces. They have addressed these issues by offering support in various areas of business development from financing to how to hire and train help.

Maybe you already have a small home-based business and want to expand your capabilities like my friend Margaret. She started her home-based bookkeeping service 5 years ago and felt that if she expanded her services into accounting she could surely earn more money. Margaret's lack of confidence in her self held her back.

While flipping through a magazine in the waiting room of her dentist's office she read an article about a woman who also had a home-based bookkeeping business and expanded her enterprise by becoming a franchisee of a Georgia based accounting franchise company.

Margaret didn't hesitate! She called the franchise company on her cell phone right there from the dentists' waiting room.

She discovered that not only would she get proper training in accounting and client development she would have continual access to highly trained tax accountants at the franchiser's home office to help her get through the turbulent tax season. Margaret bought into the franchise immediately.

Starting your own business is a staircase to financial independence and a more wholesome and successful life.

Owning your own business gives you power over your life in addition to a few other rewards:

• Financial independence. Approximately 75% of all millionaires in the U.S. own their own business.
• Ability to get results. A big drawback of corporate employment is adhering to corporate policies and procedures, and waiting (sometimes endlessly) for decisions from superiors.
• You control how your time is spent.

With your own business, you don't have to worry about being downsized or laid-off. You have control over your company and the decisions that drive your enterprise.

Success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Hold onto your self-confidence and you are on your way to a rich and rewarding life.

Gladys Edmunds is an author, columnist for USA Today, entrepreneur, holistic success coach, and inspirational speaker. For more information on Gladys and her work, please visit the author's website at http://www.gladysedmunds.com.