This year I learned the important lesson of asking for help. When starting your own business, you go into it thinking you can do something so well that people will pay you for it. Why would you need help?
I already know how to do it.
But soon after the reality of running your own business so sets in and you learn very quickly how much you don’t know.
It’s so important to have people around you who can support you and who are experts in their own fields. Need to learn how to do your finances? Ask your accountant. Need to learn about different software for your business? Talk to someone in IT. But a lot of the time we forget to ask about ourselves. How are we doing? Are we achieving the goals we set out to do? Am I handling the work? How do I feel about the direction of the business?
How am I really doing?
We put so much of ourselves into our work and businesses that if we suffer, our business suffers. Having someone to talk to about how you are feeling and discuss your own goals and achievements is vital to the health of your business.
For this I would suggest getting a mentor. I myself had a mentor this year and she has been absolutely invaluable. Having an outside opinion can really help you see things much more clearly. You can get so bogged down in your own business that its hard sometimes to see obvious answers right in front of you. And it’s always great having your own personal cheerleader. Someone who is there just for you and your success.
It doesn’t have to be someone in your field of work but someone you may look up to or someone who has experience you want to learn from.
So, if you do anything new next year, I would suggest seeking out a mentor. No matter what happens you will always learn something new about yourself and that can only bring positives to your business. Or you can even be someone else’s mentor. As there is always someone out there who thinks you are cooler than you think you are 😊