I was just reading my friend and neighbor Havi’s blog (who, by the way, is top-shelf reading) about some things she’s grateful for, and she started off the list talking about hiring and receiving help.
I won’t make this complicated. I won’t make this drawn-out, or too processed. I’ll just lay it out for your straight and clear:
No business can be truly successful on the efforts of a single person. Period.
Before you start to, perhaps, hyperventilate, or your stomach clenches tightly, and you start thinking of all the reasons why you can’t hire the help right now, or that you would love to have the help but no one wants to help you, or all the other reasons that come up, please just take a moment and breathe.
Let it in.
If this statement were absolutely true (and it is) then it means a few things:
- You haven’t messed up. You just don’t yet have enough help.
- Nothing is broken. You just don’t yet have enough help.
- You aren’t doomed. You just don’t yet have enough help.
Of course, not all help is the same. You will need different kinds of help at different times. And sometimes all at once.
The Five Kinds of Help
• Information Help
Sometimes you just don’t know what to do, or how to do it. You need to learn, and you need someone to teach you. Sometimes a book or an information product will do very well. Sometimes you need someone to walk you through it a few times.
Repetition is important. The books I’ve learned the most from I’ve read multiple times.
If aspects of your business leave you feeling a little lost, confused, or that things seem unapproachable, this may be the help you need. For instance, if you need to understand marketing, or sales, or how to write an article.
• Administrative/Getting Things Done Help
Sometimes you just can’t get it all done. Sometimes no amount of productivity, prioritizing, or “being in the flow” will change this simple fact. Heart of Business is in this place right now, which is why we’re looking for two interns.
If it feels like you are running in place, this may be your issue. (Hint: stop trying to “process” this issue away, and get some help.)
I recommend starting with a great bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant for 2-3 hours/month, just to dip your toe in.
• Technical/Creative Help
Websites. Graphics. Blogs. Audio. Video. There are some things you just shouldn’t do yourself, unless you are the expert. Sometimes, you should just get help with a website (like Adam, or Dawud, or Mynde and Wendy, or Trisha), or you should get a designer/illustrator (like David, or Richard) or any number of other things.
It’s just not worth the time, effort, and expense to try to do some things yourself. Yes, it will cost you a serious investment. Yes, it’s cheaper than spending HUNDREDS of hours trying to do it yourself, instead of doing the stuff you really need to be doing, and ending up with a botched job that doesn’t work so well.
As an example, join Your Web Coaches Mynde Mayfield, Wendy Cholbi, and myself on April 23- we’re discussing websites and heart.
• Evolutionary Help
Blind spots. You keep doing the same thing over and over, even when you know that you should be doing something differently. Or something in your life or business brings up hugely irrational emotions, like terror, rage, or numbness, and you’ve had no success getting around or through it.
If you find yourself weepy, numb, or stuck, and it’s been awhile, this may be your issues. Various healing and coaching modalities are helpful here. Don’t delay. Get some help. Perhaps from Jim, or Judy, or Hiro, or Yollana. Or from Havi, or Naomi, or even the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism. Or even me.
Note: This kind of help is absolutely imperative when it’s really needed- and it’s often overused. Coaching and healing is amazing, and yet sometimes people can try to “process” their way out of a problem, that just needs a different kind of help. A great healer or coach won’t take you for a ride, if you’re needing a different kind of help.
• Community Help
Feeling isolated? Alone? Like it’s all on your shoulders, and no one understands what you’re going through? Or that you don’t have anyone to confide in? Running a business can be lonely, isolating work, especially in this time of the virtual office.
If you find yourself not having anyone to turn to bounce ideas off of, this may be your issue. I recommend putting together or joining a Mastermind group. I feel so strongly about this, that when you get Unveiling the Heart of Your Business, it includes a two-hour audio class and pdf on Mastermind of the Heart.
You Will Use Every Single One of These
That is, if you’re smart. And if your business is ever to become successful. That’s right, you don’t wait until you’re successful to get the help. You get the help, and you become successful.
First you get the help, then become successful.
Help first. Then success.
Should I say it again? (Help. Get some help. Then see success.)
Now, Go Get Some Help
Since you will need all of them, start with any of them. Which sounds like most like you? Which is your heart drawn to first?
And, if you have your own recommendations for where you’ve gotten amazing help from someone else, please feel free to recommend those amazing people here.
Or if you’ve had your own journey to accepting help, share it here, to help those who haven’t yet seen the light…
