As a solo-entrepreneur, who do you turn to when you need help, advice or just plain support to grow your business?

If you are like many other entrepreneurs, it might sometimes feel as if nobody really understands exactly what you are doing. Thus, you’re hesitant to ask for advice because you’re not sure if people can give any good advice.

Perhaps it even feels you need to figure out everything on your own – the hard way – and that this is just a part of the journey towards success.

Luckily that’s not true at all!

What I’ve learned over the years is you don’t need to struggle all alone. And there’s actually an easy way to speed up your success.

Build a business support system and learn from people who has already “being there and done that”?

This way, you save a lot of time, because often implementing only one little technique shared by one of your trusted advisers, can make something easy which was once very hard.

It also saves a lot of frustration because you can avoid making the same mistakes that others have made.

So, here are 5 types of individuals or groups that I’ve included in my business support system and find tremendously helpful in growing my business. Perhaps people or groups like these can help you too.

1. Work with a mentor or coach.

Having a fresh pair of eyes that focuses specifically on helping you grow your business is invaluable.  The right mentor / coach can help you define the actions you need to take,  act as a sounding board, help you define your goals, give personalized support, share appropriate know-how, systems and tools you haven’t thought of before,  give you the necessary confidence and hold you accountable to implement the plans for  growing your business. Without a coach, I wouldn’t have grown my business so quickly.

2. Join a mastermind group.

Being part of a group of like-minded individuals that regularly meet and with whom you can discuss problem areas in your business or just brainstorm new ideas can do wonders for your business. It is like tapping into the collective experience, insights and wisdom of a group of people all with one goal of supporting you to grow your business while simultaneously growing their own businesses.

3. Work with an accountability buddy.

This is someone that you can get in contact with on a weekly basis to participate in regular accountability calls. You share your goals with each other as well as the action steps you want to take and then keep each other accountable to take those actions and reaching those goals. This really ensures that you continue to make progress, implement what you say you want to do and stay inspired to grow your business.

4. Network with other business colleagues.

This can be other solo-entrepreneurs or business owners either in the same industry or in another industry. Talking to other business owners, even when they are not directly in your industry or line of work is a great way to tap into advice and expertise that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get hold of. It can also stimulate your thinking, allow you to look at things differently and help you generate new ideas to implement.

5. Regularly talk to your spouse, a trusted family member or friend about your business.

Even though they might not be an entrepreneur or know and understand exactly what you do, they are not wrapped up in the day to day workings of entrepreneurship, and can often provide alternative or fresh insights to stimulate ideas and help you see things differently. My hubby is an engineer and he does not fully understand entrepreneurship or even what I’m doing, but his analytical way of thinking has brought many a-ha moments to my business.

Forming a support system or a group of trusted advisers for you and your business can be invaluable to your long-term success. Most successful entrepreneurs have one or more of the above included in their support systems, because they know they can’t do it completely alone.

So, who are the members of your business support system? Do you have one in place? Share your comments with us below.

To Your Success

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