When it comes to your small business, you’d do everything in your power to grow it to new and improved heights. There are no quick-fixes for small business success – at least, not as far as the marketing world is concerned. However, there is a secret ingredient.

It’s not expanding your marketing budget. It’s certainly not the perfect business plan. The secret ingredient for small business success is confidence.

That’s right! Confidence is the key ingredient to having small business success, and unless you’re confident as a business owner, you will never be able to achieve the success that you want.

But, can this be correct? Is something so simple as being confident truly be the answer to all of our small business success-related questions? Well, to make a true believer out of you, let’s take a closer look at the facts.

The Battle of Underconfidence

Research shows that the majority of small business owners are battling under confidence in their business. Of these entrepreneurs, 60% have ranked their revenue growth below the 50th percentile of similarly sized companies. However, when compared to their actual cash flow and revenue data, information indicated that the vast majority actually have a healthier revenue performance than they initially explained.

The reason why so many small business owners are under confident is that they compare themselves to others. They tend to under-place their performance, often rating themselves below average on difficult tasks. In other words, the harder the task, the harder people are on themselves when describing their ability to carry out that task successfully.

So, why is it that these individuals are feeling pessimistic about their company’s performance? And, even more importantly, is this attitude affecting their decision making?

Well, it’s been noted that people who demonstrate under confidence are more likely to become discouraged or even give up on accomplishing their goals. The primary distinction between those who persist and those who give up is their level of self-confidence.

The good news for these under confident small business owners is that they can improve. They must learn how to focus and stay determined in their efforts so that they can become more confident in themselves and the success of their business. They can exhibit more self-confidence by persevering longer and being more resilient when faced with challenging situations.

The Cure ForUnder confidence 

Some people make the common mistake of associating the best remedy for being under confident with being overconfident. Being overconfident is never the right solution because it lacks a sense of authenticity and honesty.

The actual “cure” for under confidence is technology. Small business owners should find a way to access bench marking and analysis systems to accurately estimate their performance. These technological advancements will empower these small business owners to better analyze and understand their business performance.

It’s only within these tracking, measuring, and monitoring software that these business owners can acquire the kind of self-confidence that they need to succeed. If an under confident small business owner can measure their performance accurately, then they can understand exactly which areas their business is doing well and which areas need improvement.

In addition to this, they can compare their resources against their peers, which can significantly influence their decision-making process on how to improve upon the areas where their competitors are excelling.

So, the big melting pot of small business success is composed of the 3 main ingredients – data, persistence, and self-confidence. When you combine these 3 ingredients in your small business efforts, then you’re guaranteed the ultimate recipe for small business success.