Write down the single thing you'll do tomorrow. Not what you'll work on. One completed act, small enough to finish inside an hour and specific enough that somebody else could tell you whether it happened. Send the quote to the two people who asked in March. Put the price on the page. Call the supplier back.

From I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start, chapter 8: Why later always wins

The ratio frightened you off completely. Then, before you decide anything, look carefully at what the closed businesses had in common. Sometimes the answer is something you could avoid. Sometimes it's the business itself. If it's the second, your fear may be doing exactly what Aquinas said good fear does.

From I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward, chapter 7: When the coward is right

The numbers make you feel ashamed. They are not a verdict on your character. They are a record, and a record is only useful if you can look at it without flinching. Write the number, put the page down, and come back to it tomorrow if you need to.

From I Want to Start a Business but I'm a Coward, chapter 9: The price of the safe choice

These passages come straight from the books. So, if one of them speaks to you, read the full chapter. It goes further, and it ends with a practical exercise.

In addition, these titles look at what is procrastination from different angles. Each one opens with a passage from the book. Then, pick the one closest to your situation.

• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Preparing Is Not Progress
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: The Course That Never Ends and the Number That Keeps Moving
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Nobody Has Ever Said No to You
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Fourteen Days to a Real Answer
• Preparing Is Not Progress: One Question, One Stranger, Fourteen Days
• I Never Actually Start: Preparing Is Not Progress
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Why Preparing Feels Like Progress and Isn't
• I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start: Eleven Chapters on the Gap Between Wanting and Doing

Write the smallest step that would move your business forward, then give it five minutes. The timer only removes the excuse; the starting is yours.

My smallest next step.

5:00

Start 5 minutes.

Nothing you type leaves this page.

Finally, I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start goes deeper into what is procrastination. Therefore, it is the natural next step. You can read it or listen to it in the stores below. It is also available in 19 languages.

Go to the book page. All topics.

• How to start a business.Diego Segura's books begin somewhere else: with a small test you can run this week, a first paying customer, and costs kept close to zero.
• Business ideas.Lists of business ideas are everywhere, but a list can't tell you which idea fits you.
• Online business ideas.Online business ideas look easy because the tools are cheap.
• Low risk business ideas.These passages show how to limit the downside, so that fear doesn't decide for you.