Knowing When To Lean Into Growing Pains

I bet you money you can remember exactly where you were, what you were wearing, and the napkin you wrote your FIRST entrepreneurial idea on. 

Fast forward to turning that idea into reality. Putting in the endless hours, working in the nooks and crannies of your days, finding success, finding failures, and FINALLY getting to see the growth you wanted. 

But how about those moments you WISHED you had some help. Someone to brainstorm with, someone that could pick up projects that got put on the back burner, someone that could be part of your team. The idea of having that person, for most entrepreneurs, sounds like a dream. Like just maybe you’d be able to take your business to the next level. 

How many of you have craved the help but weren’t ready to let in someone new to your business? 

After all, that business was your baby. It was your dream that kept you up at night, that had you working at all hours of the day, it was your stress and anxiety that made it what it is today. The idea of handing off projects to someone else, someone that isn’t you, is TERRIFYING. 

Loud and clear for the people in the back, I GET IT. 

Bandit has had 5 years where it’s only additional employees were behind the counter in our airport café. But here’s the thing, we couldn’t afford NOT to have someone else added to our team. There were too many moving parts, too many ideas, too many deadlines to do by ourselves. 

I know, it’s easier watching someone else do it than to do it yourself, so let me explain how I FINALLY got to this point from the Bandit perspective, and just maybe, you’ll find something useful in it you can apply to your own growth. 

• The first thing I did was write a list of every single thing I do and need to do on a day-to-day basis to establish an overall task list
• Next was assigning times to each thing on the list and understanding where I’m spending the largest portion of my time
• Then it’s thinking about if those areas of time are the ‘right’ areas for me to be spending time on 

After going through those few steps I knew the things I was spending my time on, while super important to my business and it’s growth, were not where MY time needed to be spent. There were debates, there was denial, there was hesitation in handing over this thing that we had grown to some random person who was supposedly going to do as good of a job. 

The big fat scary answer to all of the above is YES. 

Yes you are going to hire someone that’s going to see your vision, your mission, and bring value to the team. Maybe they weren’t there the whole time, but they’re here now. Living in the present, understanding what your business needs and where you need to be spending your time will set you apart from the rest. 

Focus on your strengths, be willing to ask for help, and have a little faith that it will all work out exactly like it’s supposed to.