Knowing When To Let Go In Business

As an entrepreneur, you have put blood, sweat, and tears (hopefully more of the latter two) into building your business. It’s an extension of you. Sometimes that leads to overprotective behaviour that could actually be harming the growth of your business in the long run.

You have to learn to let go.

Letting go doesn’t mean closing up shop because maybe you have hit a patch of stalled growth or a decline in business. I’m talking about realizing that maybe you might not know what the best solution is. It’s putting the needs of your business before your ego and getting feedback from someone that might know better than you.

Any successful leader will tell you that to be successful you should surround yourself with people who have strengths that complement your own – you have to fill your weakness gaps. That means first admitting that you have weaknesses that need to be offset. It also means that you need to be able to listen and act on the advice of those around you.

Learn from the masters.

When you are in the thick of it, sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint what the problems are. Whereas a third party can look at the bigger picture without any bias. I have had people approach me with advice for SongBird, and other times I have asked for advice. Sometimes it can be hard to hear you are doing something wrong, but just think of what you can do if you take the advice and apply it!

Of course, not all advice will be welcomed, and not all advice will suit what you are trying to accomplish. However, the key is learning to listen and process information as a leader in business.

Lean on someone.

Entrepreneurs always wear many hats when it comes to operations, marketing, sales, product development, etc. If you are lucky enough to have a support team, make sure you utilize their skills fully. This means delegating tasks and empowering your team to complete them without having you hover or give overly detailed instructions. For example, asking someone to write a blog for the company website and then giving them a detailed outline or dictating the content isn’t getting them to write it. When you assign a task, walk away and trust that if there are questions, your team member will come to you.

Utilizing the skills and talent of each individual team member will make them feel valued, which leads to long-term loyalty. Delegating some of your work load to other team members and trusting that they will get the job done gives you more time to accomplish the tasks that are left for you to do.

When was the last time you asked for advice?