8 Tips to Build Your Project-Investing Confidence

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How I Came to Terms with It

As I explained in one of my earlier posts, I love a good project. I’ve got so many ideas floating about, and just don’t have the time to get through them all. A few years back, I realised that a lot of the ones I didn’t think I had time for were just things I was too scared to lose money on.

I was so used to being able to make money while avoiding expenses, so it was alien to invest anything other than time (and maybe the cost of a domain) into something. Once I realised the potential of certain ideas – if executed right – I had to fix that right up.

If it’s uncharacteristic for you, it takes time to build your confidence to invest and reinvest into ideas. It's especially hard if you've had projects fail in the past, and you can't afford for things to go wrong again. I’ve been through it so many times – either wasting money, overspending and all sorts – and now I think I’ve cracked how to build that confidence up.

The 8 Tips You Need

1. Do your research. You can save yourself so much hassle by taking the time to see if your idea solves a problem or if you can out-price or out-market someone doing the same thing. Watch what someone else is doing, and put a twist on it.

2. Accept the research. I used to be so thorough with research. Taking weeks to come up with a concept, do my competitor analysis, work out the numbers, and whatnot. Even if the research said the idea wasn't viable, the fact I'd gone to all that effort made me want to see it through anyway – only to see it not work out. If money is at stake and your idea just won't work, come to terms with it, park it, and maybe revisit it later.

3. Avoid analysis paralysis. Get going. You’ll be scared forever if you never get started. Go back to point one. Don’t be silly with it, but make sure you actually get going, or you’ll never get to where you want to be. You can’t build confidence if you are yet to see real results, so cut this stuff out.

4. Make yourself accountable. Take responsibility. Give yourself a reason to have to make it work. That mind set change will force you to stop faffing about thinking about doing things, instead of committing.

5. Make a cushion. If the worst happens and you lose the money, can you still survive and build the money up again? As long as you can, you’re good. Obviously, no one wants to lose money. However, it’s a lot easier to take, if you can recover with this loss. Take your time to save up beforehand – working to an exact sum of money – and learn more about your potential venture in the meantime.

6. Start small. If you're investing in stock to resell, go for something where you will see a profit – even if the margins are tiny – just to prove it works. Then build up from there. (Don't run before you can walk etc) . Celebrate each small win, to keep you motivated to increase the scale.

7. Find a mentor. You’d be surprised how many business people like to share their insight with people entering the game. As long as you won’t end up being their competitor, they’ll be glad to give you pointers and ensure you’re on the right path. Run your ideas past me, if you like.

8. Track your progress. If you fail to document your journey in some way, you'll forget how far you've come. Whether it's your knowledge, an increase in following, traffic or straight up cash, be aware of how you're growing. It's probably more than you realise, and it will make you realise that you might actually know what you're doing.

Now Let’s Go

It’s time to put everything into practice, and get on with it. The lack of confidence tends to come down to a lack of experience. It’s very rare that anyone gets things right on their first time around, which is why it’s a must to crack through the first barrier, and think about the bigger picture, once things will all eventually come together in the future. Want to know where to start? Here's 30 different things you could do to turn £10 into £100.