My Opinion: Can You “Fake It Till You Make It”?

I hear this term a lot: “fake it till you make it”

I've heard it often as part of sales training courses. If you want to be successful, you have to pretend to be successful. After all, clients may not want to do business with you if you have no track record of success.

The challenge is when do you draw the line?

This can be an ethical challenge for some entrepreneurs who want to show that they are experienced and successful but do not have years of experience under their belts.

My advice to brand new entrepreneurs is to avoid lying — because it will become very obvious at some point while you're working with customers — but you may want to consider spinning your past experience in a different way.

For example, if you worked in customer service for a decade before starting your own business, it's not okay to say you've been working in the business for 10 years but it is okay to say that you've got a decade of customer service experience that allows you to keep your current customers happy. It becomes even easier if you have worked in the same industry that you now own a business; you can say that you have over a decade of industry experience.

And of course, you need to dress the part and make sure your website is professional looking, even if you don't have any customers yet.

Without lying, I think you CAN “fake it till you make it” but make sure that you're always honest.

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