U is for UNDERSTAND
Know your skills, and hire your weakness
What are you really good at? What are you not so good at? Just as in “real life”, we can’t be everything to everyone, much less our business.
Maybe your background is in marketing and sales, so that’s your best asset to bring to the business. You’ve got the contacts and social skills, but you’re not great with the organisational or bookkeeping side of things. Hire your weakness. Maybe you’re really great at being an advocate for your idea, but you have no idea how to leverage a community to get behind the message and drive sales. Maybe you’re just really social media illiterate and you need to hire someone younger and more savvy to handle your Instagram!
In trying to do everything yourself, certain aspects of the business are bound to fall by the wayside and let you down.
As Sophie Amoroso says in her bestselling book, #GirlBoss, ‘Never be the smartest person in the room.’ As the CEO, founder and creative director of your start-up, this might be a worrying thought, but never fear. By surrounding ourselves with people who are better than us at all the things necessary to make your business a booming success, we are only serving to lift ourselves higher.
We spoke to one of Dream & Do’s long-time clients, Sally Irwin from Freedom Hub, about the biggest piece of advice she has for others starting out in business.
“Ask 'what is my highest best use?' and try to delegate or outsource everything else. For example, as founder of a start-up, my highest best use is 'telling the story' as it gives me partners, investors and customers. So I found a bookkeeper, an admin assistant, Dream & Do for branding, some young volunteers for social media and event coordinators. This frees me up to meet potential partners. One good strategic lunch can raise $10,000 or $100,000, so my best use is meeting with people and leveraging connections.”
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