Trying To Be Completely Self Sufficient Can Lead To Faliure July 2010
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Trying To Be Completely Self Sufficient: It's Downfalls and Solutions
A common mistake small law firm practitioners make is trying to be completely self-sufficient and trying to do it all by themselves. It feeds into the myth of the "super-hero"-I can do it all and have it all-all at once. Asking for help is a sign of strength and wisdom, not weakness and senility.
To be successful in business, you must recognize your strengths and weaknesses. The goal in life is not to eliminate your weaknesses. In fact, many people make the mistake of focusing too much on trying to overcome their weaknesses when their time and mental energy would be much better
spent in trying to maximize their strengths.
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The two major reasons why you should spend time identifying your strengths and weaknesses are:
1. It helps you surround yourself with the right people. Birds
of a feather flock together. As a business owner, it is easier to
surround ourselves with people who we like and who are like us.
Unfortunately, the people who are most like us often have similar
strengths and weaknesses. You need to carefully surround yourself with
people who have different strengths and weaknesses than you.
2. It gives you a clear picture of what areas you need to spend your time on versus outsourcing. Actively find ways to either outsource or delegate, not abdicate, the
areas in your business where you are not strong. The ability of a
business owner to attract and surround herself with people who are
stronger in some areas than she is a direct reflection of her
self-confidence and likelihood of future business success.
If
marketing is not your thing, you need to find someone in your firm to
play point on this because developing and implementing a powerful
marketing strategy is critical to the success of your business.
Many
business owners waste far too much of their precious time, energy, and
potential profits by trying to do everything for themselves as a way of
"saving a little money" or not wanting to give up "control." Remember, control
is an illusion. Don't let your need for control or your need to be
right every time get in the way of becoming a successful entrepreneur. When
it comes to taking on another project or heading up a new initiative,
consider the real cost to your business in terms of lost time, wasted
efforts, poor productivity, and decreased revenues. You are the most
important person at your company and your time is valuable.
 It
used to be said that 'time is money,' but that's not true in our modern
society. Time is worth more than money because you can always make more
money but you can never make more time.
Here
are a few common examples of what many attorneys try to do
single-handedly when they would be better off delegating or outsourcing:
- Creating and launching a direct mail campaign.
- Developing their own website or learning how to build one from scratch.
- Designing a comprehensive marketing strategy.
- Implementing systems and processes to better manage their client and prospect relationships.
I'm
not saying you should outsource your entire firm, but unless you have a
lot of extra time or specific experience in certain areas, you will not
be able to represent yourself and your company in the best possible
light without the help of other experienced professionals. Remember, asking for help is a sign of strength and wisdom, not weakness and senility.
I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes right now and create an Action Plan for how you are going to put into practice two to three specific items you discovered in this article in the next 30-60 days.
Then
find someone you can share your plan with and ask them to hold you
accountable for the results. I would love to hear how this helped you
achieve your goals.
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