Think QuickBooks is your problem? And other avoidant behaviors
July 18, 2023
Outsourcing from a place of confidence and clarity rather than avoidance
Lately I have been consulting and coaching women who have come to work with me through the belief that their QuickBooks is a mess. By mess I mean they avoid it. Haven’t looked at it. Don’t want to. Don’t know where to start.
Now here we are halfway through the year. Panic sets in. In a mere six months these financials are due to the tax accountant. Hire a business consultant! Instant overwhelm! Or whelm as I once heard Danielle LaPorte say.
Overwhelm is defined as “defeat completely” or “be too strong for; overpower.” I don’t feel those adequately define most of the challenges we face in our businesses.
It implies we don’t have the resources to solve our problems. And we do.
So, let’s go with whelm instead. Okay?
Interestingly enough I too have been upgrading and implementing new systems in my business. My whelm has been delivered in the implementation of all the lovely tech systems that go with running an online business – Dubsado, Later, social media, Email Marketing, SEO…whelm.
The struggle has been REAL. And I’m grateful for it. It means I’m growing. It means I’m learning. And it means I can meet these women right where they are.
It also is an opportunity to get really clear on how much is necessary.
When we are faced with a situation where we don’t feel like we have enough – money, time, knowledge, or any other resource – it provides an opportunity to pause, have a look, get creative and make a choice. It’s an opportunity for growth and clarity.
What I’ve found in working with women who are avoiding their financial systems, lack of knowledge isn’t the root issue.
I’ll use myself and my tech drama as an example. I know I am an intelligent person, and I am resourceful AF. I remember my second job out of college I was put over the SEC filings for a smaller subsidiary of the larger parent company I worked for. I came home and cried DAILY because I felt like a huge fraud. I had no idea what I was doing! And my boss, who had recruited me to come work with her, must have made some huge mistake. But slowly, I figured it out.
By the time I left that job I had been promoted 3 times and was the only woman in attendance at the company board meetings. I wrote the script the CFO used to deliver the earnings calls. I wrote the Earnings Press Releases.
I’m incredibly proud of that scared, yet brave woman who took a chance and stuck with it until she figured it out.
I’ve been that woman over and over again. Learning. Growing. Inventing and reinventing. We humans are quite incredible. We are constantly learning and growing, evolving. We have so much more potential than we often give ourselves credit for.
And we are incredibly good at avoiding pain.
I don’t need to tell you that there is a lot of pain and discomfort when it comes to our finances.
We ask for more money to come into our business, yet we completely avoid looking at our financials.
We don’t make a budget because it would be “too limiting” or “restricts abundance”. We figure if we can keep paying for everything on time then we are doing great and are running a successful company.
We outsource all our accounting, bookkeeping, taxes, payroll, etc. and say it’s because “we aren’t good with numbers.”
We avoid setting up financials systems and processes in our business and save it for later because it’s too time-consuming and hard.
And other stories that limit us from stepping into a place of power in our businesses.
Let me be clear – I COMPLETELY support and encourage business owners to outsource things that are outside of their zone of genius and spend their time adding the most value to their business and joy to their lives. But…
There’s a big difference in outsourcing because you’re operating from a place of clarity and confidence and outsourcing from a place of avoidance.
Many of us, me included, are in a place in our business where we simply cannot outsource everything, and we also cannot do everything ourselves. This provides, as I mentioned earlier, an opportunity for us to pause and have a look.
Back to my tech drama – faced with new and completely different challenges, I have the same opportunity to pause and look. Why am I feeling so whelmed? So stuck? There are plenty of resources online to teach me. Honestly, probably too many. If it’s something that truly is not going to benefit me to learn, there are plenty of people available to take over the job for me.
For me, the pause and acknowledgement that I know I’m smart enough to learn and figure it out led me to the realization that I have a lot of fear around actually putting myself out there.
I was subconsciously avoiding putting in systems and processes and focusing on scaling my business sustainably because I didn’t feel safe to be seen in my true potential and full power.
When I recognized that and used tools that I have been taught by my mentors over the years, I was able to approach these tech nightmares differently. What I avoided doing and “couldn’t figure out” for months, I solved a huge chunk in a mere day.
That’s the thing when we look at these stories, patterns, and subconscious beliefs – brought into the light, they start to lose their grip and power.
If you’re finding yourself avoiding your finances or any processes in your business, it might be time for a look. Maybe QuickBooks isn’t the root issue. Maybe it’s that you have a belief that is keeping you from stepping into your power and showing up as your brilliant self. What if you could solve the financial and systems problems AND address the underlying belief so you walked away with confidence and clarity?
