Why every entrepreneur needs a helping hand

Becoming an entrepreneur usually comes with a lot of very romantic ideas. People imagine themselves being able to take total control of their own lives and work, no longer having to put up with following the orders of other people. Now, there’s a lot of truth to that. It’s an incredibly liberating experience being able to make your own rules and take charge of the way you work. Of course, it shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise that those benefits come with their own fair share of downsides. While working on your own might be incredibly freeing, it’s also a pretty daunting experience for a lot of people.

After all, while you might not have anyone to answer to, that means that you also have no one to lean on when things start to get difficult. As the old saying goes, “no man is an island.” Man or woman, there’s very little that you can do in life, and especially in business, without the help of other people. But don’t worry, there is always help out there for those who need it. Here are some ways in which even the most independent entrepreneur might want to reach out and ask for help.

Investors

If there’s one thing that every single business needs, it’s capital. It might not be the driving force behind your desire to set up a business, but there is no doubt that money is the thing that keeps the world of business going round. The hardest thing for many new entrepreneurs is actually being able to find the money that they need to get their business off the ground. This is where investors come in. Investors are third parties, sometimes companies, sometimes individuals who are in a position to provide the capital that your business needs in exchange for an expected return on their investment. Many of the most successful businesses in the world could never have gotten started were it not for investors helping them get their foot on the ladder. However, no one wants to give something for nothing. If you want investment in your business, then there are compromises that need to be made. For one thing, you’re probably going to have to hand a degree of control over to your investors. A lot of the time that is one of the stipulations that they have before they offer you any money. After all, if they’re putting their money into a business, they want to make sure that it’s going in the right direction. The other issue is that investors often want to see a financial return, which means that you’ve got to balance the amount that they’re providing with how much they actually want back from you when your business starts earning.

Outsourcing

If you try to run a business all by yourself, then you’re likely to find yourself collapsing from exhaustion before long. The dangers of which are very, very real: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/overwork-bad-health. Running a business is a complicated affair, there’s no doubt about that. Think of it like spinning plates. If you’re doing it all by yourself, then you’ve got to keep every single plate spinning by hand which can be seriously overwhelming. Fortunately, there is another way. If you have decided to set up a business of your own, then the chances are pretty good that you have a specific set of skills at your disposal. But when it comes to the gaps in your skill set, that’s where you should look towards outsourcing. By hiring in freelance companies and agencies to handle the things that you can’t, you’ll be able to focus much more heavily on the things that you do understand. Whether you hire an accountant to handle your finances or a company like http://truenorthwebagency.com to deal with the online aspects of your business, outsourcing these aspects of your business will not only help your business but will prevent you from keeling over with exhaustion. And the benefit of working with freelancers is that you only work together as long as it’s beneficial for you both, preventing you from getting stuck paying employees that you don’t really need.   

Partners

Ask yourself, can you really handle the running of a business on your own? You might want the independence and control that comes with it but is that really worth it? It’s an important question because if the answer is no, then you’re likely to be in a position where you might be better of partnering with someone else from the very start. Sure, you lose a certain sense of that “go-it-alone” spirit that makes being an independent entrepreneur so enticing, but by doing that you’re already in a position where you’ve practically halved the work that you need to do. As long as you find someone that you can trust, and are willing to work closely with every day, having a partner in your business can be one of the best things for both you and your business. This is especially true if you find someone whose skill set complements yours. If you both have skills in slightly different areas then you’re much more likely to be able to support each other as effectively as possible.

Hands-on-deck

One of the most important things to remember is that no matter what, there is no shame in needing to ask for help from anyone. The problem that many entrepreneurs end up with is that they feel as though asking for help is some kind of admission of failure. As if not being able to do everything themselves without any support whatsoever means that they’re not the savvy business owner that they thought they were. Of course, it doesn’t take much to see how ridiculous this idea is. If you could create and sustain a successful business all by yourself, then everyone would be doing it. For anything to be successful, it is probably going to need a lot of hands-on-deck at all times, and that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still your business or that you aren’t always in complete control.

You might also like to read:

• Winter is coming… is your business property protected?
• Hard work is the key to success
• This is how you pitch a product
• How To Win At Your Next Marketing Event
• Bring Your Creative Business To The Next Level