Business Owners, You Don’t Need to Know it All

I have been running my own business for over 5 years now. Prior to that, I was working at a senior level of another small business. I come from a family of small businessowners. My life has been centred around entrepreneurship for as long as I can remember.

When I first started my business, I put an obscene amount of pressure on myself to know it all.

I thought I had to know everything there was to know about bookkeeping, accounting, marketing, social media, branding, grant writing, business proposals, website design… on top of that, I felt I had to be an expert on every single detail of my industry.

I possibly felt this pressure more as a young person and as a woman in business. I felt that because I was so young, I had something to prove and the only way to do that was to prove I knew it all.

I’m thankful to say that I have done a lot of growing since then. I have realised that not only do I not need to know everything but that it is actually impossible to do so.

For most people, that’s not a hard realisation to come to. But for many young entrepreneurs, coming to that realisation is not so easy. This is especially true for young people who come from marginalised backgrounds, such as women, people of colour, culturally and linguistically diverse people and queer people. In a society in which their mere existence is often questioned or over-looked, making a strong case that they are a successful business person is even more challenging.

Google is the small business owner’s best friend. If you’re ever not sure about something, Google it, and you’ll find the answer. Oftentimes, my role as a consultant is to come in and help a client determine which answer is the best out of many suggestions from a search engine. On other occasions, my job is to help those who can do the job themselves but are time-poor. The other times I am called in to assist is to do a job in which I have a specific expertise.

I always tell my clients to say, “Yes”. If someone asks you to do a job which you’re confident you can do or you can learn to do fairly quickly, always say yes. In the worst case scenario, you might have to outsource the job, but often clients are just appreciative that they are dealing with the one…