Overcoming The Fears of Entrepreneurship

Guest Post by Amy, from Spread the Message Marketing

Read Amy’s story and check out our full interview in the video here.

Getting over the fears of failure and jumping straight into entrepreneurship can be hard! These were my exact thoughts around March of 2019 as I was in the brainstorming and beginning stages of creating a new business. The first business idea I had was a doozy.

Thankfully, my husband and I talked it over and I realized it wasn’t it. It was during this time I started listening to different business podcasts, attending any free webinar I could, and researching jobs that I had experience in and could do from home.

Entrepreneurship comes with so many challenges and obstacles. Join me as I talk with Amy Wilkes on how she has been overcoming the fears of entrepreneurship in her own business all with God's help. #faithandwork #faithbasedbusiness #christianentrepreneurship

Getting Into Social Media Management

I was already doing social media creation and management on a small scale for my current boss and his company. I was a virtual admin assistant and started growing his accounts and gaining traction, so I decided to look for a similar side gig. I went to upwork.com and applied for a few jobs where I could try to gain some more experience to test if this was for me and to see if I’d enjoy it.

I landed a side job there and started to blog for this business owner and posting to social media accounts while also engaging with their followers. I also helped them get started on Pinterest and grow that account. It was a blast and I started really diving deep into things that people liked to see on the business owners’ feed and figuring out what performed well.

Good Performance Leads to Natural Growth

It wasn’t a few weeks later that the upwork.com job I landed with a business owner ended up referring me to someone they knew and they became a client of mine. At this point, I was enjoying it and thought this is something I could do to help with all my why’s: be able to be home with my kids and work from home, have a job that I move easily with since we are a military family, and I was enjoying it and passionate about it!

So, I did it, I prayed on it, talked with my husband about it and decided I’d apply for an LLC and get to work. I was still working part-time as a virtual admin assistant too, so I was BUSY! I was enjoying it though, I was able to start out all my social pages, get to know other business owners, learn more tactics, seek new clients, and keep coming up with creative and effective content.

No Growth Without God

It was such fun but then about two months into the business, I hit a brick wall. Things were not going as I thought they would. I’d get on calls, send people info, and then crickets. I even had people I knew very well just not even respond back to me. It was a hard point of all this, and I began talking with a dear friend of mine, Ernestine who is also a business owner and started her business close to the time I did, and she said something one day that stood out.

She told me that she only did what God guided her to do in her business. She prayed, read the Bible, and sought out God’s guidance with all of the business. I asked myself that day, are you trying to do all this on your own or are you seeking the Lord in every detail of this business? It was pretty clear… I was not allowing God to control every aspect of my business.

Bringing God Into the Business

I decided it was time for a change. Let’s approach this differently. I surrendered Spread the Message Marketing to the Lord and started doing things the way I should have in the beginning. Those trials came up in the beginning for a purpose and that was for me to see that I needed to seek Him in all parts of my life including my business.

Once I made this change, I started praying more about business decisions, praying before I got on a prospect call, praying over hopefully future help, and praying over clients. This changed everything!

Want to know what He did after this? Of course, I figured you’d like to know. He started blessing me! I’m not talking about a little, He did it a lot. I started landing new clients and they were coming to me. I didn’t send anymore cold emails or messages or anything. People were coming my way now! My existing clients or people that knew about my business referred me to others and Spread the Message Marketing started to grow

Praying Over The Direction of the Business

Remember that part-time job I told you I had? It got harder to keep up with those hours too, so I had to decide on what was next. I was at a point where I wanted to hire someone part-time to help me. I reached out to a dear church friend and asked if she’d be interested. Before I go any further, God put 2 people in my mind and in my heart from the beginning of Spread the Message Marketing. I told my husband, if this business ever grows, I want to hire Angel and Brittney. Well Angel was the first one I spoke with and she said yes after prayer and discussion with family. She’s been with me since November 1st and been such a huge part of this business.

Right after Angel joined in, I had to go to the Lord in prayer about another big decision….was it time for me to devote my time only to Spread the Message and quit my other part-time virtual admin assistant position and it became very clear it was best. I took a leap of faith and had to quit and guess what the Lord did? He allowed me to gain my old boss as a client of mine for my marketing agency. That’s how wonderful the Lord is! Nothing ceases to amaze me.

Well, I could keep writing about all the things the Lord has done in the business for many pages, but I’ll spare you some time. I ended up hiring Brittney, my sister in law, part-time to help too in December and our team has been so amazing. Every Monday we have a team meeting where we start with a devotion, prayer, tips/training things, and assignments for the week. I love these two on the team and could not imagine Spread the Message Marketing without them

Overcoming Business Obstacles

I still have obstacles in my business and recently, COVID-19 has brought some unseen things but one thing I remind myself is God is in control and I just have to seek Him in all things when it comes to the business. He gave me this idea, He gave me these clients, He gave me this team, He gave me these platforms to not only share marketing but Him too, and He’s in control. When things start to sound too hard or I’m starting to have any type of doubt or fear in the business, I remember my verse of the year, Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible”! Such a powerful verse and one that makes everything seem so approachable.

I’m excited for what the Lord has blessed me with as far as ideas for the future of Spread the Message Marketing and about to release a brand new service where we will offer a monthly content calendar with full written out captions, call to actions, suggested hashtags, photos, and lives/stories. As well as access to a private Facebook group where I’ll be teaching one masterclass each month as well as doing a giveaway each month and some networking opportunities. I love thinking of new ideas and getting creative, so this is right up my alley!

As you can see, I’ve faced obstacles but also seen so many wonderful blessings from the Lord. If I can give you any advice as a future entrepreneur or a current entrepreneur that is to seek Him in all things, be consistent (especially in your social media marketing haha!) and enjoy the journey!

Guest Author

Amy Wilkes from Spread the Message Marketing

I’m Amy, child of God, wife of 13 years, military spouse, mom of 2 young girls, and business owner. I studied marketing a little while in grad school but never knew it would become my full-time passion! I became a virtual assistant and marketing manager a couple of years ago and by side gigs and word of mouth referrals, Spread the Message Marketing was born. I now have two part-time helpers who help me with writing, images, scheduling posts, and blogging so that I can keep creating marketing tools to help small business owners all over the world! I enjoy coming up with new and creative ways for businesses to stand out in their niche. I have found my passion as a career and love helping with social media marketing and all aspects around that plus teaching other business owners!

Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest