How learning to ask for help can open up a world of possibilities
In three years I’ve swapped corporate life to run my own business and start a family at the same time. It’s possible!
As someone who has always been fiercely independent, I am used to going it alone. I was single for a long time, living in my little pad in south east London, holding down a corporate job where accepting help was discouraged (and career-limiting). So I really wasn’t very good at letting people in.
How times have changed. No longer in London, I am raising my three little children in lovely Cheshire, planning my wedding to their Daddy, and so very very grateful for all the help I receive from family and friends.
It hasn’t been an easy transition to make — for instance even when heavily pregnant I used to clean every speck of dust from the house before my in-laws visited, and insist on cooking every meal from scratch, and resolutely refuse any form of help even though my fabulous mother-in-law really wanted to be more involved.
But slowly (and with the arrival of three babies in three years and then the birth of a brand new business too) I found myself letting go of the need to be independent and in control.
I realised that I don’t need to always be the hostess — especially when my visitors are family and are delighted to help out. And if things aren’t always done my way or I have to spend half an hour hunting down an item that has been put away in the wrong cupboard … well what does it really matter?
What does matter is that my family is cared for and is healthy and happy. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I certainly believe that to be true. Without my parents and in-laws, who all help so much with our little tribe, I wouldn’t be free to build my exciting new business — a wool and craft boutique that opened its doors last September, and consumes so much of my time and focus that sometimes I have to literally switch my brain off.
I’m taking a big step forward with the business this year, because I’ve learned this valuable lesson. The foundations are now firmly in place after the first eight months of trading, and I have managed to outperform my initial sales targets. So now I’m ready to move along to the next phase in the plan — to grow the business online.
And to achieve this I am going to try something that I never would have done before. I’m going to tell my followers what I’m planning and ask them to help as part of a crowdfunding campaign.
I have no idea what to expect, but I’m going to put myself out there — because independence can only get me so far but the power of the crowd could make me surf!
xx Lucy
PS - Want to hear more about the crowdfunding campaign? Add your email and I will let you know as it develops.
This is my first article on Medium as part of the Makelight Thread publication. Usually you can find me blogging about my family and yarn-y business at www.magnoliatreecrafts.com/blog
Thanks to Stef Lewandowski
