 Let’s be honest, many of us (small business owners) want to do all the work ourselves. In fact, delegating can often be the biggest nightmare for an entrepreneur or solo-preneur (at least it often is for me) and the mere thought of asking for help keeps you up at night. When I was in college, my biggest weakness was my lack of ability to delegate tasks. I thought that if I didn’t do it myself then it would be done wrong and I’d have to go back and do it again after someone screwed it up; thus wasting my time. I also thought that needing help or assistance was a sign of weakness. Don’t worry, I have since learned that I was wrong in thinking those things.I still sometimes try to do it all. I still hate asking for help, but we all need it sometimes because no one person can do it all (yes, I am admitting I am wrong). This is especially true in business. You might be a genius computer technician or athletic trainer but you can’t balance a checkbook to save you life. That is why payroll firms and accountants exist, to do the work you suck at doing. The same goes for marketing. There comes a time when you realize that you have too much work on your plate in order to maintain your business that you just can’t focus on the marketing side. That is where hiring a marketing consultant comes in handy. (insert fun intro music for me to walk in and pageant wave at everyone).
A little known fact is that my minor in college was Leadership. Yes, it’s an actual collegiate course and minor and I graduated with it; go ahead and get your laughter out now. My leadership degree is probably more useful than your French minor that you only use to impress your Tinder dates. Of the entire leadership degree course-load that I learned, the one lesson that has stuck with me throughout these years is that the real weakness is the act of NOT delegating and asking for assistance but trying to do it all on your own. Sometimes you need help. Don’t be ashamed of it, but rather be assured that assistance and delegation of tasks will be beneficial to you and your business. However, I will make note that before assigning important tasks to others, make sure you do your due diligence on them. You want to ensure that they are capable of not only doing the work correctly, but to a level of perfection you’d expect from yourself. Example: Don’t trust your plumbing with the neighborhood teenager who doesn’t know which direction to turn the faucet to turn it on. You may be paying him in cans of Red Bull, but you’ll get what you pay for…a plumbing disaster. In my experience, most business owners are stubborn when it comes to asking for help (I’m guilty of this). The trick is pinpointing when it becomes time for you to call in a consultant for guidance and just how to make sure they’re the right one for you and your business. Here are some signs and situations you may encounter that says, “I need to get some marketing help and hire a consultant”.
If you have said any of those phrases lately, please take a moment to fill out this marketing solutions survey. This will get you thinking about what you actually need to do to achieve your business goals! Comments are closed.
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