Confidence is the key to success – But you don’t need to do it alone

Being a business owner can be lonely at times. Hana Dickinson, Owner of The Bridge, a marketing consultancy based in Woodbridge, talks about how working with consultants can provide much needed support and confidence when it counts.

Anyone who has started a business will recall that it can feel lonely at times. There are highs and there are lows. You learn something new every day and sometimes it can be hard to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and convince yourself to keep going.

I think it’s fair to say that confidence is fundamental to success and it can be hard to retain confidence with limited support. Sometimes you need someone else to bounce ideas off, share the strain, remind you of your vision and nudge you back on course. If you’re a larger business, you will have people on your team who can offer this support. For the smaller businesses, this is not always the case. There are few businesses that would not benefit from a fresh pair of eyes and an independent assessment of the situation.

Our clients come to us because they are looking a solid marketing strategy, a sensible budget and an actionable plan. But, the great unsaid is that, whether they know it or not, every single one of them is looking to us to give them the confidence to power ahead.

So many of the people we hold up and applaud as the greatest business minds of our generation, are all too happy to point out that they made plenty of mistakes along the way. It was their confidence, determination and their support network that enabled them to dust themselves off and keep going.

Like all consultants, we are privileged to share our clients’ many moments of celebration and the occasional moment of vulnerability. It’s time to celebrate the fact that the most important role we, as business advisers, play is the role of trusted confidante and cheerleader. Part of our service is to help the business leaders we work with to have confidence in the plan, confidence that the business can deliver it and confidence in themselves to lead their business to success.

Business people are people and they need their advisers to be right by their side – whenever that little trickle of doubt creeps in – to remind them that they can do it, and they don’t have to do it alone.