Going It Alone Makes You Strong
Dare to ask for help
Or is going it alone really all that strong? I'd argue you can absolutely run fast on your own — but it's as part of a team that you truly move forward. Having the courage to ask for help is an enormous strength.
My single best piece of advice to you as a consultant is: Focus on what you're good at! Study, keep developing your skills, live your profession, and become the true expert that only you can be within your field.
This isn't about locking yourself in a closet and going antisocial. Bill your working day to a client, and then put roughly 30 extra minutes a day into a webinar, a good book, YouTube, or whatever platform covers your subject. Do that consistently, and you'll be light-years ahead of your competitors — with your future secured, whether as a consultant or as an employee.
Imagine dropping this into your sales pitch: "Oh, and I spend 180 hours a year on professional development — and have done for the past 12 years…"
When I look back at my own journey, I wasted far too much time worrying about:
– What's it actually like to start your own business? How do I find clients and assignments?
– How do you set up a limited company? That must be complicated and expensive.
– Bookkeeping — I can't do that!
– Insurance — what do I need and what does it cost?
– Pension — what happens to it when you're self-employed?
– My bank — should I stick with the same one, or how does that even work?
After years of going around in circles and hours in front of the computer, I finally did it. I asked for help — and what a relief that was!
I simply called a self-employed consultant I'd connected with on LinkedIn and fired off about ten questions.
Then I called www.bolagspartner.se, who handle 10% of all new limited companies in Sweden today. They could naturally answer every single one of my questions. It took four minutes.
www.slipp.se for bookkeeping. Five minutes!
www.trygghansa.se for insurance. Five minutes!
There are of course other providers out there, but that's not the point here. The point is that you shouldn't waste your time thinking you need to have an iron grip on everything yourself.
Keep building expertise in your field instead — work an extra hour and outsource the bookkeeping to an external firm. There are solutions available for a few hundred kronor a month that handle everything, while you stay fully in control via an app.
I look forward to the day people talk about GigPort and ask: why has there never been a tool before that lets you find available expertise? GigPort — the meeting place for consultants.
Going it alone makes you strong — but for the self-employed, I'd say going it alone makes you stronger. Jonas Leijon – GigPort