Ego Evaluation: Don’t Let Pride Get In The Way Of Business

March 15, 2019

Entrepreneurs tend to share a range of similar traits. Working hard to be able to make a life for yourself takes determination, passion, and energy, and not a lot of people have the right combination to be successful. Of course, though, along with being focused on your work, it can be easy to find yourself being to stubborn with your business. As your work continues to grow, the way that you run it will have to change, and this may mean dropping your pride and taking action which you’d have never taken in the past. To help out with this, this post will be exploring some of the areas which this can impact the most.
Getting Help
It can be easy to find yourself unwilling to accept help when you’ve work very hard to create something. A lot of business owners will have spent many years handling work on their own, and won’t be used to going to someone else for their advice. In reality, though, no matter how much experience you have, there will always be someone out there with the skills to help you. Take Brad Russell's digital marketing advice, for example, as this sort of resource can push you far further than you would get struggling to do things by yourself. As you get bigger, this will only become more important.
Taking On Employees
As a business starts to grow, the workload which it has to deal with will almost certainly go up. To solve this issue, most companies will start to hire employees once they reach a certain size, with the boss giving up some of the jobs which they usually do. After a couple of years of maintaining high standards, though, it can be hard to trust someone else with the jobs you have. Of course, though, when you take someone like this on, you will have a good chance to interview them, and this will make it possible to verify that they are the right person to be working for your business.
Spending Money
While it may sound a little cliche, business will often only start to make more money once they’ve spent a little bit of it. Marketing, improving your services, and making yourself look more professional will all be a lot easier if you’re willing to put some money into it. This can feel bad when you’ve worked hard to spend as little as possible up until this point. In reality, though, the money should come back to you, and this means that you’re not spending it at all; you’re making an investment in yourself. This is always worthwhile when you’ve been working for a long time but can’t seem to push yourself forwards.
Working With Others
Small businesses have to stick together in the modern world. With so much competition out there, it can be hard to make a name for yourself when you’re on your own. There is nothing wrong with working with other small companies to improve your popularity, and this is a route with a lot of companies have been taking over the last few years. These sorts of partnerships are best when they offer mutual benefits. For example, if you manufacture something, you might be able to find a business which can buy parts directly from you, making everyone’s lives easier in the process.
Being Compliant
Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about the rules which have to be followed when you’re running a small company. Data protection, employee rights, and a lot of other areas won’t feel very important when you’re working on your own, and it can feel like a waste to focus too hard on them. As you grow, though, more and more people will be focusing on you, and this will mean that a small slip up will be easily noticed. This is something which a lot of business owners fail to consider, often resulting in issues down the line.
With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on taking the pride out of your small business. Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be happy with what you’ve achieved, as anyone who is able to work for themselves is doing something right. As time goes on, though, your business will change, and you have to be prepared to adapt alongside it if you want to keep up. If you fail to do this, you could easily find your growth being stopped in its tracks.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

Learn podcasting
in your own time

Listen to the
free podcast

The free, thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights & straight-talking reactions to podcasting news. This short-form show typically runs for between 7 and 15 minutes and releases every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Usually a solo show, every now and then, the show features expert podcast industry guests and release bonus episodes as the podcast industry continues to grow and develop.