As Drm50 notes, small guns, including many compacts, have heavy recoil springs that can make racking the slide difficult.
Your have three easy, inexpensive possibilities with most of them:
1) if hammer-fired, cock the hammer before racking the slide, or
2) hold the slide down around near your waist (but with the muzzle pointed down and away from your feet), and brace your slide-holding hand against your body while you PUSH the rest of the gun down, or
3) if hammer-fired, do both!