I remember in my younger days in college I worked out in the weight room with several of my friends. During our workout we would take turns spotting each other as we would go through our repetitions on the bench press. Many times, all I needed was a spotter to put one finger underneath the bar and it would get me that little extra lift I needed to complete the press successfully.
I was amazed at how much weight I was able to eventually press own my own. But, I needed a little bit of help in my journey to accomplish my weight training goals.
If you’re like most business owners I work with, you didn’t get where you are by waiting around for someone else to fix things.
You figured it out.
You pushed through.
You handled it.
And somewhere along the way, that became the default setting:
“I’ll take care of it.”
“I can figure it out myself.”
On the surface, that sounds like eventual success.
But in reality? That belief—left unchecked—can quietly become one of the most expensive habits in your business.
Let’s talk about a few of the myths behind my small business owners resist getting some help.
Myth #1: “I Can Figure It Out Myself”
You probably can.
That’s not the issue.
The issue is how long it takes—and what it costs you while you’re figuring it out.
Here’s what I see all the time: a business owner dealing with the same employee issues over and over. Communication breakdowns. Lack of accountability. Good people not quite performing the way they should.
So the owner steps in. Again.
Explains it again.
Fixes it again.
It happens again and he or she gets angry, and blows up.
Nothing really changes. Another day at the office.
Why? Because when you’re in the middle of it every day, it’s hard to see the pattern. You’re too close.
An outside perspective doesn’t make you less capable—it makes you more effective. It helps you connect the dots faster and fix the right problem instead of just managing the symptoms.
There’s a big difference between solving a problem… and living with it.
Myth #2: “Consultants Are Too Expensive”
I understand this one. Nobody likes unnecessary expenses.
But let me ask you a question: what are the problems in your business already costing you?
- What’s it costing you when a solid employee leaves because they’re frustrated?
What’s it costing you when work has to be redone?
What’s it costing you when you’re tied up in people issues instead of growing the business? - What’s it costing you in terms of your own emotional and physical health?
Most of those costs don’t show up neatly on a spreadsheet. But they’re there—every day.
And they add up and they take their toll on your business and you.
I remember thought leader, Les Brown using the statement: “You don’t ask for help because you are weak. You ask for help because you want to remain strong.”
Another way of rephrasing it for this topic is: “You don’t hire a consultant to prevent you from going broke, you hire a consultant to help you become profitable”.
A good consultant doesn’t just “cost money.” They help you stop the bleeding you may not even realize is happening and turn that around into a successful business.
In most cases, the bigger risk isn’t hiring help. It’s waiting too long to get it.
Myth #3: “They Won’t Understand My Business”
You’re right—no one knows your business like you do.
And they shouldn’t.
Because that’s not what you need.
You don’t need someone to tell you how your industry works. You need someone who understands people and can look at how your people are working inside your business—and help you improve it.
Here’s the reality: communication problems are communication problems. Accountability issues are accountability issues. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, technology, financial, manufacturing, service, or construction.
The patterns are the same.
The difference is, when you’re in it every day, those patterns can blend into the background. An outside set of eyes sees them immediately.
Often the clients that I work with are amazed within the first few weeks of our working together. This happens because we go after the low hanging fruit and make some small but immediate changes that turns their business in the right direction. Employees begin cooperating, client problems lessen, complaints go down and cash flow increases. Why? Because of some subtle but significant changes.
You bring the expertise.
A good consultant brings clarity.
That combination is very powerful.
Myth #4: “I’ll Deal With It When It Gets Bad Enough”
This one is more common than most people want to admit.
Things aren’t great—but they’re not terrible. So you push it off. You deal with it later. You hope it works itself out.
It is like the analogy that your boat has a hole in it but it’s not too big. You keep on sailing, but the hole gets bigger and bigger and before long you have a major problem.
In your small business, smaller issues turn into bigger ones. Frustration builds. Performance slips. And by the time you decide to address it, the cost—financial and otherwise—is a lot higher than it needed to be.
I like to compare it to maintenance.
If you take care of things early, it is manageable.
If you wait until something breaks, now you’ve got a bigger, more expensive problem on your hands.
Strong businesses don’t wait for breakdowns. They make adjustments early. That’s the smart way to do it.
Myth #5: “If I Bring in Help, It Means I’m Failing” (The Ego Factor)
This is the one most people don’t say out loud.
But it’s there.
For a lot of business owners, asking for help feels like admitting something isn’t working—or worse, that they aren’t measuring up.
So instead, they double down. They hold tighter. They stay involved in everything. They convince themselves that pushing harder is the answer.
That’s not leadership—that’s ego getting in the way.
And ego is expensive.
It keeps you from hearing feedback you need to hear.
It keeps your team from stepping up because you won’t let go.
And it keeps problems in place far longer than they should be.
The strongest leaders I know aren’t the ones who have all the answers. They’re the ones who are confident enough to say, “Let’s get another set of eyes on this.”
That’s not weakness. That’s maturity.
Myth #6: “We tried using a consultant – and it didn’t work.” (The Resistance to Change)
This one doesn’t always sound like resistance.
It sounds more like:
“We’ve always done it this way.”
“It works… for the most part.”
“Now’s not the right time to make changes.”
On the surface, it feels practical. Even responsible.
But underneath it is something else: a natural reluctance to change.
As the saying goes:
“Most business owners prefer comfortable problems vs uncomfortable solutions”
Change is uncomfortable. It starts with new conversations, it requires new habits and sometimes letting go of ways of doing things that feel familiar—even if they’re no longer effective.
So instead, businesses settle.
They tolerate inefficiencies.
They put up with and work around the same people issues.
They accept “almost good enough” performance.
Not because they want to—but because changing it feels harder than living with it.
Here’s the problem: standing still in business is rarely neutral. While you’re maintaining the status quo, your competitors are improving, employees are forming opinions, and small issues are quietly growing.
A good consultant doesn’t come in to disrupt everything—they help you make the right changes, in the right way, at the right time.
Because the real risk isn’t change.
It’s staying the same longer than you should.
Final Thought
Like a combination lock that you only had 1 of the 3 numbers to open it. You could spin that lock for hours and hours and never figure out the other two numbers you needed to open it. In essence, all you needed to do was to get a little assistance in figuring out the other two numbers that it would take to open the lock. That is the way to look at an outside consultant. Someone that can shorten the learning curve on how to solve your problems.
By Tom Borg © All Rights Reserved
