There’s a tendency for business owners to tell the story of starting a company as if they did it all themselves.
I can’t tell that story.
When I started A Better Choice Network Solutions, I had help and support.
My mom invested money and time to help get the business going. My oldest daughter worked with me for a while helping with sales. My brother provided support along the way.
In fact, my mom helped land our very first client through cold calling.
For the record, cold calling was awful. We don’t do it anymore, but that early success led us to stick with it longer than we probably should have. While it may work for some businesses, we’ve found that our best relationships are built by earning trust over time.
Looking back after ten years, I think there’s an important lesson in all of that. Building a business may start with one person’s idea, but very few successful businesses are truly built by one person.
Lesson #8: You can’t do it all yourself.
From Accepting Help to Building a Team
In the beginning, you don’t necessarily have departments, established processes, or a big payroll.
You have people willing to help.
Sometimes that’s family. Sometimes it’s an employee who takes a chance on a small company. Small business support can come from a lot of places: another business owner who gives you advice or a professional partner who helps solve something you don’t know how to solve yourself, or simply someone willing to lend a hand when you need it.
Those contributions matter.
As the business grows, though, the nature of that help has to change.
And so does the business owner.
There’s a natural tendency to stay involved in everything. Part of that is responsibility. Part of it is habit.
And part of it is the thought every business owner has had:
“It’ll be faster if I just do it myself.”
Sometimes that’s even true.
But there are only so many hours in a day.
Eventually, I had to recognize that just because I could do something didn’t mean I should be the person doing it.
If I spend an hour doing something someone else can do just as well, that’s an hour I’m not spending on something that actually requires me.
One of the biggest transitions in growing a business is going from accepting help to building a team.
Accepting help gets you through the day.
Building a team allows the business to grow.
Find People Who Are Better Than You
There’s a temptation as a business owner to think you’re supposed to have all the answers.
You’re not.
Hire people with skills you don’t have. Work with an accountant who understands things you don’t. Call an attorney when you need legal advice. Build relationships with other business owners who have already dealt with problems you’re encountering for the first time. Seek out networking groups to meet people who are going through, or have already been through, the struggles you are facing.
And when someone on your team knows more about something than you do, listen to them.
That’s not losing control of your business.
That’s building a better business.
Delegation also requires trust. You have to let people make decisions and accept that someone may accomplish something differently than you would.
Different doesn’t necessarily mean wrong.
Sometimes the person you weren’t sure was ready for something turns out to be more than ready.
You’ll never discover that if you never give them the opportunity.
The Same Lesson Applies to Technology
I see business owners struggle with this when it comes to IT.
Successful entrepreneurs are usually pretty good at figuring things out. So when there’s a technology problem, their instinct is often:
“I’ll figure it out.”
And sometimes they can.
But the question isn’t always can you do it?
The better question is should you be doing it?
If you’re the owner of a successful company and spend three hours trying to fix a printer, how much did that printer problem really cost?
More importantly, what weren’t you doing during those three hours?
As a managed IT provider offering small business support in Lakeland and throughout Central Florida, that’s something we see regularly.
Our job isn’t simply to fix computers. It’s to take technology problems off the business owner’s plate so they can concentrate on running their business.
That’s really just another form of delegation: putting the right responsibility in the hands of the right people.
Ten Years Later
When I look back at the last ten years, I don’t see a business I built by myself.
I see my mom investing her time and money, and making those cold calls.
I see my daughter helping with sales and editing my website.
I see my brother providing support.
I see employees who became part of the company and took on responsibilities that once belonged to me.
And I see business partners, vendors, clients, friends, and other business owners who helped us along the way.
The lesson was actually there from the very beginning, even if I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time:
You can’t do it all yourself.
Building a business isn’t about proving you can do everything.
It’s about building something where you don’t have to.
And after ten years, I’m grateful for all the people who have helped me learn that lesson.