by Katelyn Bourgoin
You’re an expert business strategist, a competent career coach, a marketing maven, a builder of beautiful brands or a web design whiz.
You’ve got a knack for distilling down what others do. For taking their larger than life visions and communicating it in a few carefully chosen words. For seeing the weak link in their business strategy. For maintaining a consistent style that’s on brand.
Yet when it comes to applying your skills to your own biz, you freeze up.
The pressure to have the best, most beautiful, most unique and inspiring concept, website and e-book is pretty huge. After all, you’ve got to show potential clients the level of skill and creativity they can expect from you.
Suddenly you’re not sure where to start. There’s so many avenues, styles, colour palettes and templates to choose from. You’re such a complex creature you can’t decide if your tone should be sweet and supportive or authentic and edgy. You’ve got ideas up the yang and you want to use them all, but you know that’s not savvy business strategy.
You’re the cobbler whose son has no shoes.
Spoiler alert: this article is not meant to fix this problem. It doesn’t contain tips or tricks on improving your focus, narrowing your own vision or being your own fav client.
It’s about gettin’ real with ourselves and decided that maayybe, just maybe, someone else might be able to do for you what you do for others.
We’re talking about hiring someone else who does what you do, to do it for you.
This sounds crazy, counter-intuitive and downright wrong, right?
The truth is, spending precious time and energy trying to get it right just so you can do it for your dream clients is wrong-er.
I’m not saying they’re better than you. They’re just better positioned to see what you’re missing.
To keep the old adages going, you can’t see the forest for the trees.
Or maybe, like many fab female entrepreneurs, you could sell ice to a polar bear—but you struggle to sell yourself.
Regardless of the reason, here are a few more advantages to hiring someone else, in case you’re not convinced.
You’ll refine your business even more:
Explaining to your coach / consultant / freelancer of choice what you do, why you do it and who you do it for can be a great exercise in itself. But don’t panic when you find yourself giving way too much information. It will be easier for someone not so close to your business to pick out the key points and fine-tune your messaging.
You’ll have the opportunity to refocus or rebrand:
Whether you’re in need of strategy, direction, clarity, or something more tangible like marketing tactics and design, a second opinion can give you the fresh outlook you need to adjust your vision or update your look.
You’ll make a new industry friend:
This is really just an added bonus. By working closely with a peer, you’ll develop a relationship that could serve you well in the future. Someone who will send clients your way when they can’t take them on. Someone to bounce ideas off of and share tips and resources with.
I know, it’s a scary thought—investing in someone else. But if a client was in your position, what would you recommend they do?
I say go ahead, buy the shoes.
—————————————————————-
Katelyn Bourgoin is a marketing / communications expert and serial entrepreneur. When she’s not building brands or creating stuff, she’s either drinking wine while reminiscing about creating stuff, getting into mischief, or sleeping.
After founding RedRiot Communications at 25, she was hooked on entrepreneurship. In 4 years, she grew RedRiot from a one-woman shop into one of Halifax’s hottest boutique branding agencies. She reeled in bigwig clients like Target and the Holiday Inn and did award-winning work.
What is she up to these days? Working on the next big internet sensation… Vendeve.com—a service marketplace where women buy, sell and swap skills. Vendeve will change the way women do business, which, in turn, will change the way the world does business. Nuff said.
She Owns It accepts guest post submissions at https://sheownsit.com/guest-post-submissions/. If you have an article that would be of value to our community, please submit for approval.
All posts will be screened, links checked (limited to 3 and must be relevant), and author must be verifiable through a website and social media accounts.
