Who’s Got Your Back? Five Kinds Of People Who Make Success Possible

Entrepreneurs need help!

Even the very smallest of small businesses, the bootstrap companies we are all so proud of, can’t exist in a vacuum.

I knew this instinctively from the start. I knew it intellectually, having read a thing or two about business success. Yet in the early years of my company’s existence I was afraid to get help with anything. I know I have discussed the “be or buy” question in this blog before, but this time I want to talk about support in a broader sense.

We can pay for training and programs that help with developing products, etc. We can hire coaches and read advice from experts and listen to prominent speakers all day long, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to follow through and make good use of what we have paid for, even when we plan well. Why is that?

Some of it is the unexpected curve balls that business and life can throw us. Some of it is poor time management. Some of it is biting off more than we can chew. Some of it is a matter of alignment and failing to say NO to anything not on the path we have chosen for ourselves and our work. … and some of it, today’s topic, is a matter of what Jim Collins calls, “Getting the right people on the bus.”[1] As I struggle to get a long-term project back on track, at the same time working on revenue generating opportunities, it occurs to me how very important it is to have the right people participating in your work-life as an entrepreneur.

These are the five kinds of people who sustain me and help keep my business going. As I try to balance development work with service and sales, each of which is a full-time job in and of itself, they help in different ways and each one is an indispensable part of the equation.

1) Customers: Customers are the people whom we serve. They are the people who read the books and blogs, who attend webinars and workshops… the people whose businesses benefit from consulting, those who help keep the doors open by valuing our service and expertise enough to pay for it. They speak well of us to their friends and help to open doors with prospective clients.

For me, they make it possible to continue the process of developing new ideas and products that help make the modern workplace a more efficient and fulfilling place to be.

2) Supporters: Support people range from paid staff members, to those whom we contract for a specific service (marketing, accounting, coaching, etc.), to those whose work we read for tips and inspiration. They must be chosen wisely. They need to be competent and trustworthy, reliable but still affordable, and above all professional. When we hire staff members or service providers who aren’t invested in our success, who do not share our vision and aren’t open to learning and embracing it, it can be really hard to get things done right or in a timely manner. It can be really daunting to consider whom to trust, and whose services we are willing to pay for.

Yet most of us absolutely must have some help now and then to keep the wheels turning and the lights on, not to mention managing skyrocketing growth!

If you are fortunate to have found good support people, make sure they know that they are appreciated. Support them and help them build their skills, even if that means they may some day move on. At least that way, they will stay long enough to be worth your investment in hiring and training them. Ideally, when they do move on they will leave you with great reluctance, keeping up with their duties until the end, and maybe even train the new guy on the way out!

3) Cheerleaders: We all need cheerleaders in our lives. These are the people who remind us of our “why,” who keep us going and give us the occasional pep talk. They are the ones who love us and brush the dust off of us when we fall. These are the people we would walk through fire for and who do the same for us. They bring us a coffee, a smile, even flowers now and again. They recharge our batteries and grace the dedications of our books, inspire us to greater heights, and believe in us even when we falter.

Hip, hip, hooray for the cheerleaders in our work-lives!

4) Mentors: There are many different kinds of mentors. There are spiritual mentors, like gurus, pastors, and those friends and loved ones with whom we can openly and safely discuss matters of the heart. There are academic and professional mentors who help us to think differently and open doors that support our growth and sustenance. There are business and life coaches and those wonderful friends who will risk making us angry to tell it like it is when we are self-sabotaging.

These are the people who will tell us about the spinach on our teeth at a business lunch, or that we should probably scrap the model we crafted for our latest book.

In thinking of my mentors, I am reminded of Khalil Gibran’s words, “Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.”[2]

He was talking about love, but I always revisit these words when the topic of mentoring comes up. A good mentor will watch as you grow in your own way, lovingly pointing out your mistakes and offering suggestions when you are finally willing to listen. Timing is everything when it comes to learning the difficult lessons in life and work, as Joanne C. Preston has shown me on many occasions. (Thanks, Joanne!)

5) Collaborators: Collaborators tend to be both cheerleaders and mentors to one degree or the other. We choose to develop content, submit proposals, and undertake large projects with people who inspire us, who teach us, and whose contributions make the work stronger, clearer, and infinitely more insightful. These are the people who “have some skin in the game” too and are happy to share the work and rewards of our projects.

We can count on them to do their share, and to be brutally honest during the “sausage-making” process.

Sometimes we choose collaborators whom we consider equals. Other times, we collaborate with those whom we wish to emulate, who are willing to teach us along the way. The trick is to collaborate with people we truly enjoy and whose commitment to the task at hand matches our own.

I can’t imagine staying in business without all five of these kinds of people. At first, I didn’t have the first two kinds. I focused only on my writing and creative work, ignoring the necessary efforts of monetizing it, putting sound business processes in place, and getting help with execution of administrative and business development tasks.

My focus led to some good stuff in terms of new concepts and writing, but unless you are holding the winning lottery ticket, you can’t operate like that forever. You have to let go of and limiting beliefs about outsourcing and sales in order to fulfill your mission.

For me that means sustaining the important work of creating ways to make our work-lives more productive and fulfilling in the long run, helping companies to solve problems in ways that leave them stronger and more adaptive.

In order to do that, I needed to open myself up a lot. I had to admit that I was human, take a deep breath, and— gasp— ask for help!

It was time to seek out and accept help with my business (humbling). It was also time to have a lot more conversations about the practical application of my work, seeking out people and companies who can benefit— those who really need this kind of work to support their continued growth and sustainability.

The cast of characters shifts over time, but the roles are fairly consistent and I play all of these roles, myself, for other business people, friends, and loved ones. Some people stay on the bus for the entire trip, while others only ride for a time, getting off at the next station. To succeed you have to be okay with that, open to a little risk, but very selective about whom you give a ticket to— in ANY capacity, even clients!

So how about you?

Do you have all five kinds of people in your work-life?

If not, which ones do you need to invite into your world to make your business more sustainable?

Copyright Gly Solutions, LLC 2015