Sometimes it is Necessary to Let Go
Ever had one of those days when you were sure nothing would go right? My day started when I pasted a new worksheet into a large Excel workbook, and faithfully saved, only to click on another worksheet within and find that my paste job had pasted itself onto every worksheet! Because I had saved, I just wiped out my entire workbook! This workbook represents weeks of work reviewing archived documents for a client – all gone.
My heart clenched and I could feel my face getting hot from stress. This is the epitome of a bad Monday morning. Forcing myself to take deep breaths, I tried to think what to do. Shame on me, this is the only copy. I pray that perhaps I have a system restore program and can go back to the time prior to this fatal save.
I worked, to no avail, to try to correct the situation and then, just before reaching the point of tears, I acknowledged that I needed some assistance on this one. Time to call in a pro.
This acknowledgment is probably one of the most vital for a small business owner to make. I’ve seen so many people decide to step out of the stress of corporate America and open their own businesses. They come blasting out of the gates, full of excitement, dead set upon making a success of their business. Before long, the honeymoon feeling is wearing off and the overwhelm is setting in. This is often because they are trying to go it alone, feeling that they can’t afford to hire someone to do work at this point in their progress.
This can be a fatal mistake. When a business owner attempts to do everything themselves, they are losing more money than they are saving. The whole purpose of going into business is because a person feels that they can make money from their offer of a service or product that will serve the customers desires and needs. If the businessperson ends up spending all of their time taking care of the books, marketing, reviewing contracts, purchasing, performing customer service, taking care of technological issue, and all the other multitude of necessary tasks, how will you ever have the time or energy to perform the part that you are best at? That is the offering of your service and the fulfillment of the product sale which is the very heart of your work.
Identify where you can delegate and let go of non-money making tasks within your business, will free your time and energy to perform the work that makes you a profit. It will also relieve a lot of stress and make you happier with your work and business. This, in turn, will make it more desirable for your customers to work with you. Your stressed and frustrated energy is easily recognized by customers and can be a quick turn off.
Living and working your life purpose, means making the best decisions possible to provide fulfillment back to you. Letting go of the tasks which do not provide this, allows space for creativity. Try a small step, see how it sits with you and then go on to another. You have nothing to lose, except the feelings of frustration which were probably the reason you wanted to get away from your job and open your business!
By the way, my tech support was able to restore my document and very little time was lost! Phew!
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Lesley V. Ingves
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