Solo-Preneur

I did it too. As an entrepreneur I started my business under the assumption I had to know how to do everything. I mean EVERYTHING! I had to know accounting, sales, marketing, financials, inventory tracking, customer service, cleaning, client relationships, computers, and IT. Everything.

That’s what I thought. And, when I didn’t know how to do something good, and I mean really good, I got frustrated and down on myself. I chastised my being and did what most people do: some really ugly self-talk about “why can’t you be better at this? You’re running your own business, so you HAVE to know how to do this.”

Man. I’m so glad I’m over all of that crap. I’m so glad!

When it finally dawned on me that I needed to practice what I preached in my consulting, coaching, and mentoring. I would tell help clients understand their own strengths and talents, as well as those of their team, and then divvy up responsibilities accordingly. If Bob was amazing at IT, let Bob do the IT stuff. If Betsy was amazing at customer service and sucked at the details of bookkeeping, then keep her the hell away from the books.

I’ll never forget the day I was frustrated yet again at myself because I’d let the accounting aspect of the biz pile up. It was a task that I didn’t dread, I despised! It was a chore to force myself to sit down and do this part of the business, when I’d rather be out making sales calls and being with clients! THAT is what rocked my world, and I was (and am!) pretty darn good at that!

Right about that time, I got a mailer (yep, a mailer! It was back when mail was cool!) aimed at small businesses (that’s me!) and it asked the question “Do you hate doing the accounting for your business, when what you’d rather be doing is anything BUT this part of running a business?!”

WTH?! YES!!! That’s me! I signed that business up (by the way, they’re still doing my accounting for me to this day!) and I finally started walking my own talk.

Strengths-based leadership, even when you are a solo-prenuer or an entrepreneur. Do what you do best. Do what you excel at and find others to help you in the areas that are not you! Even if you’re running on a shoestring budget, I can assure you there are other start-ups who are also running on a shoestring budget. Barter is a cool thing! Barter services. Offer to cross-share marketing messages on social media. There are tons of ideas as to ways to “pay” each other. Bottom line help each other out!

But at the heart of it, do what you do best and put the rest of it elsewhere! The minute I started doing that, WOW!!! Just wow! My being felt better, and there was not an aspect of running my business that I dreaded! And, guess what happened? The freaking business started rocking at even a faster pace!

Do what you do best! Period!