Do you ask for help or do you prefer to do it on your own?

I was once fiercely independent and asking for help or support was something that didn’t come easily to me. It felt like I was showing signs of weakness by asking for help.

Over the last five years, I have gradually been asking for help though, starting in 2011 when I approached my partner with the idea of leaving full time employment to run my business full time. I had been running my business alongside my full time job and was keen to make a few changes. It took me a while, and several personal challenges later, before I asked for more help.

It can be incredibly lonely running our own business, even with employees as we have to do many different jobs and make tough decisions. Running a business really is the best training course you could sign up for!

Last week I was reminded of asking for help again whilst I was silently panicking at the thought of a book launch in 4 weeks’ time, whilst still in the middle of final edits and no book cover! I reached out to my book mentor, my editor and a fellow coach. All three responded with words of encouragement and assured me it would be ok. On Friday, and again last night, as I was typing up changes to the book, I felt a rush of gratitude to these three people and all the others that have supported me over the years.

Your products can be created on your own. Your services can be given by just you. Your business will run just by you. But these three things will be incredibly challenging unless you ask for help and support.

I share in my book Successful Business Minds that in 2012 and again in 2014 I almost walked away from my business. I was just overwhelmed with it all; the finances, the lack of sales, then too many sales, my ambitions, my dreams, the decision making that was back firing on me…

It sends a shiver down my spine though when I think how close I was to giving it all up. I am thankful for that part of me that acknowledged she couldn’t do it on her own. My younger self realised that I had to change my mindset so it was aligned with success and I could only do that by reaching out to coaches, mentors, friends, family, clients and even strangers.

I encourage you to do the same TODAY!

© Helen Monaghan

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