Running A Business with ADHD!!!!

[VTadhdADULT]

52 here... "officially" diagnosed a few months ago after YEARS of dealing with depression and anxiety since my late 20's. Career number three is finally one I can flourish in... wedding design/floral design. Success in this field feeds on my creativity... ability to work well with a wide variety of clients and vendors... intuition... uber focus on the things that excite me. ALAS... this leaves a wide variety of very important business skills which I constantly feel like I "fail" at... staying on a budget, managing legal matters, remembering to pay taxes, finding the motivation to stop avoiding things as simple as answering the phone when it rings etc... Basically, the things I don't have interest in. The latter has really kept my business from growing! Short of hiring someone to do all of the things I don't do well... HELP! I have a fabulous assistant who manages many of the details that I miss. But, as the owner, the team looks to me for leadership which I constantly feel like I fail at. Any insights from other business owners etc? Thank you!

[RottieMom]

There is nothing wrong with hiring people to do those things that you forget. I am a small business owner as well, and I know I can't do it all. I have a bookkeeper who takes care of all the accounting things, invoicing, taxes, payroll, etc. I subscribe to a legal service so I have an affordable way to have contracts and things looked over by an attorney before signing them, or helping me create a standard contract I can use with my clients. I can then concentrate on my billable hours for my clients.

[VTadhdADULT in reply to RottieMom]

Thank you!

[donna09]

The "failures" you list (budget, legal, taxes, motivation, not answering phone) could describe what eats away at me most days and are reasons for the "bad days" I have. On the "good days" I find that I have not paid any attention to the incomplete, important tasks I need to take care of. I am a 63 year old woman diagnosed at 52 with Bipolar and ADD. Medication used to work but not so much anymore. I had a terrible break-down at age 59 and lost my job of 20 years earning $180K p/year, my husband divorced me after I drained my 401k to sustain the $4000+ mortgage (since I could not land a new job), we had to sell my forever home, my oldest daughter I put through a prestigious nursing school has not spoken to me since she called me on my 60th birthday and I now struggle to pay my monthly bills and live on Social Security Disability payments. Count your blessings you can run a business and have assistants. You are not a failure, you are a successful business woman; own it and be proud.

Warm Regards