Week 7 - Challenges

One thing I have realized through the process of owning my own business the last 5 years is that owning my own business is never without problems. There is always something that needs attention and improvement. Owning a business is not just about having other people work for you and make you money, and you get to sit back and relax while the money rolls in. I believe that your business will bring in money according to your efforts. There is always improvement to be done and employees to train and new ideas to develop. So, how do you find the best ways to spend your time and efforts, and get the most out of your resources and time? This week I watched a video called "the five whys" found here: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2296 The ide this video shared was to examine where the root cause of your problems are and then start there and work all the way back up to the evidence of the problem. I liked this concept because it does more than just create a huge list of little things to fix about my business. It helps me to have a real understanding of the problems, and then to be able to choose the best and most effective places to work on. I think this will be really helpful to improve many small things by focusing on a few root problems. Another thing I have been learning about this week that really stuck out to me was the idea that as an entrepreneur I should be asking for help. I have been resistant to this idea in the past and I have wanted to solve my own problems. I am starting to see that I can progress so much faster with a little mentorship and help from others. I had an experience recently that forced me to ask for help in my business. I had resisted this for a very long time, but eventually it came down to a situation where I felt I had no other choice. Luckily I had a family member that was the perfect mentor for my problem and was very willing to help me when I asked him. The problem was not an easy solve, but my mentor put in many hours of his time, and much effort and thought into helping me solve my problem. In the end we got things worked out, but I have learned from this experience that asking for help is a wonderful tool, and I can't let my pride hold me back from progressing.