Fear is a gut-wrenching, double-headed bogeyman that breeds negativity and welcomes self-doubt. It also has the power to paralyze success in its tracks.  However, the fear of risk is very real and something every successful entrepreneur must face and overcome at some stage of their road to starting a business.

Change your mindset

Having a positive mind-set and rewiring your thoughts are key to overcoming fear of risk. Ultimately, you have a choice – to face your fears head on or to run away from them.  Whatever angle you approach it from, you are choosing to be afraid.

Fear goes hand-in-hand with uncertainty so it’s important in the early stages of starting your business to surround yourself with people that have experienced this entrepreneurial journey already and take inspiration from them.

Doing something different everyday will condition your mind for change and help you to embrace new challenges.  Self-doubt is also a part of the process – read uplifting books and develop mantras and affirmations to increase your self-confidence.

Do your homework

Does your business idea fulfil a gap in the market or are you trying to compete in an already saturated space? Doing extensive market research will allow you to identify opportunities and enable you to analyse the true viability of your business proposition.

Research extensively, because once you launch there's no going back

Louise Brown, Commercial Director of award-winning heating company RA Brown, believes the winning formula to overcoming fear of risk is setting realistic targets, conducting extensive research and meticulous planning.

“When I started developing the heat pump installation side of our business with my husband, Richard, we knew from our research that the renewable sector was going to be an upcoming area of growth,” she says.

It was a pivotal time for the company, which was looking to find the right premises to house its office and a showroom to give it a retail presence and competitive edge.  “There was no room for error – the timing had to be right and every step carefully planned but it was a risk that paid off,” reflects Brown.

Ryan Stone, a video production company entrepreneur, believes that you shouldn’t give up on an idea, just because others aren’t yet doing it. He set up Lambda Films at a time when there was no real online video market. “Internet speeds were restrictive, production relatively costly and YouTube was still a dirty word,” he says.

“I certainly could have failed trying to break in to a niche that wasn’t yet fully mature, but ultimately, fear was outweighed by my passion and a belief that technology was heading in the right direction,” adds Stone.

Have a clear vision

Taking risk pushes people out of their comfort zone, which can be an unsettling and daunting experience. However, without making that leap there is no way of growing as an individual, achieving the best version of yourself or moving forward.

Having passion and a great idea is only half the battle to succeeding as an entrepreneur. It is vital to have a clear set of goals and a detailed plan on how to achieve them.

It's important to know not just what you are doing, but where it will take you.

“Being too comfortable in business can definitely be a barrier to achieving success,” agrees Naomi Tarry, Co-Founder of successful luxury Suffolk cottage agency, Best of Suffolk.

Her advice for breaking free from these constraints is to create a vision of the future that you can work towards – that way, if the risk tales you closer to your vision, you will feel more confident in taking that risk.

Tarry left a job she enjoyed at the BBC to launch Best of Suffolk but the realisation that she was able to use the transferable skills she had gained throughout her career gave her the confidence she needed to take the next step towards entrepreneurship.

“It was like a light bulb had been turned on in my mind, and from that moment on I worked around the clock to set up my business, because suddenly I was inspired to do it,” she says.