Chichester Chamber of Commerce has just completed their Enterprise Programme for Over 50s; a four week programme of workshops and coaching for those wanting to start their own business or become self employed.
Now, it’s not often I feel insecure about my marketing knowledge with two degrees and more than 16 years in marketing planning and management but the wealth of knowledge and experience in the room was humbling!
A brilliant programme, we had 15 people who signed up for the 4 week course of workshops and mentor support to establish an idea for a business, a business plan and the knowledge and confidence to make it work.
Do you know what you need?
I was considerably younger than the delegates, but they had come to learn about marketing from me… I felt very humble. I questioned what I could teach them, but the reality is, we don’t all know everything. How can we?!
Some had phenomenal operations experience, some sales, HR, IT, creative and some had brilliant ideas – but all were victims of the recession and had been made redundant; probably replaced by cheaper and certainly less experienced people! (harsh, but fair…)
The truth was that in spite of their wealth of knowledge and experience, they didn’t all know everything about marketing. That I could help with!
So the lesson in this blog post is that to ask yourself if you can really know and do everything? You may be running your own business; worrying at night; rarely taking holidays; on the hamster wheel of getting in the business and delivering the business, with rarely a chance to take a breath. But look around you.
Which hat are you wearing right now?
As a small business owner, you handle operations, finance, marketing, you’re also the main technician – oh, and don’t forget about the IT and the cleaning and then you might have time to make yourself a coffee! Be realistic. You can’t do everything and you can’t know everything. So let someone in to help.
Can someone help with your book-keeping? Help you with your business planning? Perhaps you need some admin support? And of course, there’s marketing – are you making the right decisions about your marketing? (I wouldn’t be a proper marketer if I didn’t plug this!)…
No one is expected to know everything about running a business. So it is more cost effective to pay someone else to do something in half the time it is likely to take you. You’ll need to research what you’re supposed to do and then get on and do it – with no experience! By getting someone else who knows what they’re doing, you can get on with what you do best.
It’s worth considering, don’t you think?
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