Get Used to Asking for Help in Your Author Business

40 things you can ask for as you learn the joy of receiving, accepting, reaching out, and appreciating others’ generosity

Sharon Woodhouse
5 min readMay 22, 2023
Photo by Miquel Parera on Unsplash

Asking for help. It’s the hardest thing for many of us to do and, in some ways, it’s the number one, all-purpose business hack.

You know who doesn’t have a hard time asking — for help, for support, for ideas, for solutions to challenges, for answers to questions? Kids. And kids do start businesses, as well as support their parents’ and family members’ businesses and side hustles with their energy, creativity, in-the-know savvy, and hard work. I know because every year I help dozens of kids ages 9–19 at my local school with their entrepreneurial ventures. Sure, they always ask Google too. But they know when Google gives them crap or not quite what they’re looking for. Then they ask adults.

So, first, let’s emulate children and practice asking. Asking for anything and everything. It’s okay to have needs, weaknesses, areas of ignorance and deficiency. There are always new things to learn and new ways to grow and expand.

Next, consider the favors economy. It’s the invisible currency of paying it forward. But that’s only one side of it. The favors economy goes two ways. Giving and…

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Sharon Woodhouse

Sharon Woodhouse is an author coach, publishing consultant, and project manager. She was an indie book publisher for 25 years. www.conspirecreative.com