©2023 Alicia Dara
A few years back my client Marcie*, an elegant blonde with vivid green eyes, was in the middle of our Power Voice session when she got an emergency phone call from her business partner. They had launched their beauty startup the year before, and their first two products had sold far more than they’d anticipated, causing them to scramble in order to meet the demand. They’d had to quickly onboard new staff to handle all the orders, new manufacturers to produce the products, and new distributors to get the products into stores. All of this created a much bigger, more complex production system that required a lot of attention.
When it came time to do their taxes, Marcie had worked through them herself using a software program. The phone call that came in during our session was to inform Marcie that the return had been rejected by the IRS! Although she had given it her all, something in her math did not compute. The deadline to refile was only two weeks away, which meant she had very little time to research the problem, re-compute the numbers, and fix the return.
Startup founders, at least in the first few years of business, often have to do every aspect of their business themselves. They do this for two reasons: the first is simply to keep costs down. But sometimes they also choose the DIY route so they can learn every aspect of the business from the ground-up, which helps them feel more in control. While this may be a good strategy in the beginning, the bigger your company grows the harder it is to keep track of everything.
But Marcie was determined to triumph over her taxes. She’d always been a high-performing hard worker, who bootstrapped her company and made it successful on her own terms. She wanted to solve this problem and get it right. Not only did she stay up for 36 hours to complete and file the new return, she also set out to learn the entire small-business tax code so that she would know how to handle her tax filings going forward. Something powerful was driving her, and she just couldn’t stop!
After spending almost two whole days at her desk, cramping her hands on her computer keyboard and straining her eyes until they burned like fire, Marcie had a breakthrough. She realized that underneath her ferocious drive was fear: fear of simply asking for help! She thought that if she asked for help from a tax professional it would mean that she was somehow loosing her ability to keep track of her own business. She was also afraid of being judged as incompetent by her big new staff, whose respect she needed in order to scale her business and keep it running.
At our next Power Voice session Marcie and I talked about her dilemma together. She said she was afraid that if she asked for help, it would be a sign that she was weak. So I reminded her that asking for help is actually a sign of strength, for three important reasons:
It means that you recognize you can grow beyond your fears and insecurities, which would otherwise keep you thinking and acting small
It means that you are taking steps to ensure success by engaging experts who are trained to help you get there
It means that you prioritize your health and the health of your business in the long-term, instead of just focusing on triage and stopgaps that can drain your time and energy and leave you no further along than when you started
That same afternoon Marcie booked an appointment with an accountant who specialized in small businesses that were growing fast. The accountant, a woman with twenty years experience (and a small business owner herself!) filled out Marcie’s return and filed it before the due date, and it was accepted by the IRS. She also gave Marcie a ton of strategies to maximize her business deductions and stay ahead of upcoming changes in the tax laws that would directly impact her business.
You don’t have to do everything alone on the path of your career! Working with skilled professionals can greatly relieve the burden and help you take big leaps forward. You’ll feel supported, encouraged, and strong, and the results will speak for themselves. If you’re ready to get help with finding your Power Voice, contact me directly for my rates and availability. I love hearing from you!