This is a question I heard this morning from my dental hygienist! That’s just about the last thing you want to hear from someone wielding a sharp object in your mouth! Luckily for me (and everyone getting into the chair after me) she was referring to her role as owner of a business she had started in the last year and not her skills as a dental hygienist.
I think we all feel that way at times, whether it be as a business owner, spouse, parent, friend, whatever. One key that I’ve found with successful people, and particularly successful entrepreneurs, is that not only are they OK with asking for help, but they have a keen knack for asking the right people for help.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time in business is that there is never perfect information. You always have to make a decision based on a combination of imperfect information and gut feel. Instead of spending extra time trying to find the perfect piece of information, what most successful business owners do is use “enough” information and then make the decision. What they realize the longer they’re in business is that no one decision is ever really that important in the long-run. They find it’s usually more detrimental to delay and not make a decision, because outside forces will make the decision for you (e.g. banks, competitors, the government, etc.).
Getting back to my dental hygienist, she started her business by gathering up a lot of imperfect information, asking around to see if some potential customers would pay for her service and once she found ones that would she was off and running. Ever sign a contract to fill an order where you didn’t have all the right equipment or none of the equipment? She did! Why? Because like most successful business people she has the good instinct to know that it’s best to get the order and have the confidence that you’ll be able to figure out how to fill it down the road. Even if down the road is tomorrow!
Like many of us, she feels like she really doesn’t know what she’s doing, but she seems to have a pretty good idea and it starts with plowing ahead and trusting your instincts. That’s how you’re going to make all those mistakes and have all those victories that will provide you with the wisdom of a seasoned business owner. There’s a reason why owning a business is often referred to as the School of Hard Knocks!