This is an article I published last year that is good enough to repeat…hope you enjoy!

You know how they say “life imitates art?”  I believe that life imitates business!  Lessons in our lives are the very same ones that we bump into in our business, so in this article I share with you the story of how an incident with my dog showed me one of the problems that business owners run into daily.  This lesson is called:

4 Steps to Leveraging Your Time and Talent

After his recent near death experience and a VERY expensive surgery, I had to take my eleven year old dog Colby back to the vet to get his sutures out. He had eaten a stuffed Easter egg (which didn’t pass through!) so ended up having to have it removed which left an 8 inch incision in his stomach.

On Saturday morning as I was ready to get him in my van, I discovered that no matter what I did, he wasn’t going in. I’d lift, push, cajole, and basically tried everything I could do, but my 80 pound elderly, weak-in-the-hips pooch would just slide under the vehicle. It occurred to me that one of us was gonna get hurt, so I did what every smart business owner would do….I called in reinforcements! OK, the ‘muscle’ in this case was my ex who lives about a mile away. (Yeah, we have that cool kind of relationship….) One quick phone call and in a few minutes the ex popped over and said canine was comfortably in the seat on the way to the vet.

Here is the application for your business … Support = success!

Now why in the world would I share this story about my geriatric dog and my need to call for help? Because it’s the perfect entrepreneur’s dilemma!

I had a ‘project’ I needed to do but didn’t have the resources to make it happen on my own. The theme for this article is to encourage you to see who can do the ‘heavy lifting’ and help you out in areas where you need some more support.

Below is my four-step process for embracing this really important principle in your business.

Step #1: Open your eyes! Take a look around at your business and where you either loose energy (bookkeeping maybe?) or where you are chronically overwhelmed, or when you know that if you just had a few key pieces in place….you’d really be able to take off. Sometimes it will be letting someone do the tasks for you, or maybe it’s the need you have to learn a new skill. What would it be for you? Make a list…………

Step #2: Visualize! The next step is to allow yourself to imagine what would be possible if you had this piece in place. This is where the fun is. If you could design it EXACTLY how you wanted, how would it look/feel/be? Now, everyone knows about getting ads posted on Craig’s List or putting up job descriptions, but what I coach my clients around is to make sure you put in the intangibles.  We all want someone who is skilled, etc, but this is where your values come into play.  Do you want to have your new team members be fun, or creative, or self starters?  Adding this one piece is critical! Your turn…dream big! What would you love to see in terms of support?

Step #3: Strategize! Now where do you find this person? There are two ways of doing it. The first is the ‘inner game’ way of just harnessing energy. Part of the ‘magic’ is if you just set the intention, the Universe conspires to support you. (Anyone ever watched The Secret?)

The next way is to do some research about who is out there that could ‘fill the bill’ for you in this area.

Using the social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn are really fabulous ways to connect.  One of my clients recently needed a marketing manager, so I just put the question to my LinkedIn list and got over thirty people recommending folks! Using other people’s networks and referrals is the best way to go in this case.

Now it’s your turn…after putting out the intention, create a list of where you could find the support you need and a list of who you could go to for help finding it. Don’t forget the power of your network. Ask others who they know.

Step #4: Realize! Now that you have found that perfect person, how is it going to work? What has to happen for you to put them on your team? Maybe you just need an advisory board or possibly a peer run mastermind. In either case, explore what’s the win-win for all parties involved.

If you need to pay for some new team members, do a calculation about how much business you’ll need to bring in to cover the new cash outlay. Truthfully, many entrepreneurs get themselves stuck in the trap of “I can’t afford to pay anyone to help, but I’m so busy doing so much administrative stuff, that I can’t earn more money either.” If you find yourself in that conundrum, ask yourself the following questions -

1. What’s the minimum investment I’d need to make to move forward? (Example, if you can only spend $500/month…what could that money buy you?)
2. How long would it take for me (with the new people in place) to begin to see a return on my investment?
3. What is it costing me to NOT have these additional resources? This could be in time, money, or just stress! Be honest here.

Now it’s time to take action!  Plan for the projects that you need support with, and get the people in place to make that a reality.  Once you begin to work this way, you’ll never look back!