Tightrope: How your start-up can make it in a crowded field

— -- Dear Gladys, I am a regular reader and I get a lot of inspiration from you. However, inspiration doesn't last long when I start to think about really getting started in a business. I want to open a hair salon and day spa. But I'm afraid that it will not do well because of the number of businesses that are already offering the same services. My friends say that the struggle to maintain the company will be tough. I'm fearful that they might be right? What do you think? — D. Carter

Sometimes the thing that we fear is warranted. But generally the fear that we imagine in our day-to-day existence is seldom realized.

Invest your time and energy in developing your own business and stop wasting energy by being afraid or concerned with how many other companies are in the business that you want to start.

I doubt if Dave Thomas of Wendy's, for example, had second thoughts about opening his fast-food chain just because other like companies existed.

I can remember my grandmother's advice when I would compare myself to others. She said, "No two snowflakes are the same, each is unique unto itself."

And it's true: This snowflake principle applies to humans as well. And for each thing we encounter, we place our own brand of uniqueness on that situation. With that in mind, there is no way that owners of other hair salons and day spas can be compared to you and yours.

Many would-be entrepreneurs stop before getting started because it occurs to them that their idea is not original or that someone else has started the same type of business that they're thinking of. This notion makes little sense. Have you noticed how many places you can go to get a manicure? And have you bothered to notice how close they are to each other?

Visit a mall, and you will find dozens of stores offering the same things, and they appear to be doing quite well. The other day I counted 11 shoe stores in a mall.