New Entrepreneurs Must Let Go To Grow
By Pinyo • Sep 8th, 2008We all know that it takes a lot of time and effort to start a new business and build it into a successful one. Some of us will make it to this point and finally confront the next challenge: how can I keep growing my business without being totally consumed by it? Most people won’t like the answer, because it means getting other people involved and losing the sole-proprietorship control.
Photo by Law_keven via Flickr
Many people will not be able to make this transition because they are afraid to lose control. After all, it’s inconceivable that anyone could do as good a job as you — the person who started it all. More importantly, this is your baby and it’s intolerable that you’d have to share “your precious” with anyone else; especially people who haven’t sweat and toil all these years. It would be devastating if your business meets its doom by someone else’s hands.
Letting Your Business Grow Beyond You
It is confusing and scary at this stage — and I don’t blame you! Letting go of your business is a scary thing to do. But consider the potential benefits:
More Wealth
You can only do so much by yourself, and it isn’t possible for your business to reach its potential if you have to do everything. There are many examples of garage entrepreneurs who became famous — one of the most recognizable being Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. If Bill and Dave didn’t make this critical transition, where would Hewlett-Packard be?
Here’s a question I want you to think about: Would you prefer a 100% ownership in a $100,000 company or a 50% ownership in a $1 million company?
More Freedom
If you are one of the lucky few, your business will grow to the point where it’s overwhelming for you to manage alone. By giving up some control, you’re recouping a very valuable commodity called time. Time that you can use for whatever you want:
- Time to relax
- Time to be with your family
- Time to enjoy life
- Time to build more wealth
Are you at this difficult stage of your entrepreneurial journey? If so, congratulation. Now…are you ready to let go?
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Pinyo,
Nce article. If your business can only grow so much when you are the only employee/owner/manager/strategist/marketer/accountant etc then you have to start documenting your processes and hire people.
Just as a side question, however, do you actually manage all your websites alone or do you have employees?
Agree. In order to be successful in any business, you need to know how to leverage people’s resources. Hire other people who are smarter than you. There are many books how some individuals become very successful by just not controlling their own company but rather sharing it with others. The freedom you mentioned above is enough reason to give up some control and enjoy life.
@Online Dividend — At this point, I am still part-timing on my web sites.
However, I have been thinking about turning Moolanomy into a group blog, but a few of my friends didn’t like the idea.
There’s something about entrepreneurs and their tendency towards controllers. Everything about their wealth building must go their way, their vision or not at all. It is a trait that shuts out most advice even if their business survival depends on it. And they wonder why more than 80% of new businesses fail.
But then, there are the rare ones that will use everything and all the help they can get at their disposal and succeed spectacularly. They have learnt the art of leverage and the science and math of successful business.
BTW that’s a beautiful jungle leaf butterfly called “Saturn” - a really rare picture - where did you get it?
@Stephen — Yeah, it’s the same trait that make them successful as an entrepreneur that turns against them. And as a person who like to be the controller, I can tell you that it’s quite difficult to let go. However, I think it’s an important fear that everyone must overcome at one point.
As for the photo, I got that off Flickr creative common database.