When I started One Nine Design in 2017, I did so knowing that I was bringing nearly 20 years of experience with me and a plethora of available resources designed to help me succeed. And yet, I also acknowledged that it was my first time running an actual business and there were areas in which I would need to dedicate more time to learning and overcoming. 

We all have our limitations, in life and in business. That’s a simple fact and it’s beneficial for us to acknowledge those limitations. Someone once advised me that I should focus more on exploiting my strengths versus trying to overcome my weaknesses and I’ve found that to be great advice. However, to do that, one must first know what our strengths and weaknesses are. 

Acknowledging both allows us to think of ways to deal with those shortcomings or weaknesses. And in business, it’s much better to discover them yourself than to see them identified and exploited by a competitor or by an employee. 

The famous story of Achilles and his vulnerable heel is one that all entrepreneurs need to keep in mind. Knowing that it’s useful to look critically at all parts of your business and find ways to improve, let’s look at some of the ways we can use analysis to identify and correct some potential areas of weakness.

What boosts your confidence, and what shakes it?

For any entrepreneur, confidence is a vitally important quality to have. When you make a pitch to a potential customer or partner, when you are launching a new program, course, or digital asset in your online store, or when you are leading an employee or contractor, you need to do it from a position of certainty - and certainty is dependent on confidence. 

When you think about your business, are there some areas where you tend to hedge and want to step back? Do you deliver instructions or requests in a manner that conveys uncertainty instead of confidence? If so, this is an area to address and seek additional guidance like finding a mentor that is a few years ahead of you in experience or a local program/online course for building confidence in your skills and your leadership mindset. 

Consult with people you trust

When a writer is in the process of producing a book, they will at some point hand their work over to a proofreader and/or an editor. This isn’t because they are incapable of identifying sloppy grammar or bad spelling, but because it is definitively harder to identify mistakes in your own writing. You’ll look at the page and see what you meant, which is not necessarily the same as what you have said. 

Equally, an entrepreneur needs to ask a trusted outsider for advice on anything from conversion rate optimization to accounting. A second, third, and even fourth pair of eyes on your work can flag up blind spots in your work - and their feedback can be invaluable for addressing common mistakes.

Analyze the competition

Let’s first make one thing clear - there is nothing to be gained by seeking to mimic the success of a competitor to the letter. If you try and follow your most successful competitor, the best result you can expect is to be nearly as good as them when you want to be better. 

However, analyzing their successes can allow you to examine what they’re doing well and how you could be doing better. If you’re good at x and they are good at y, combing over why this is the case can allow you to be good at x and y. You don’t need to steer away from what you are doing well, but an improvement in one area can boost your business in all areas.

Finding your business’s weaknesses can be daunting, as no-one wants to hear the negatives about their own efforts. But if you address them in a realistic way, knowing your areas for improvement can be what turns a good business into a great one. 

If you have questions about how to identify your strengths or weaknesses as a business owner, or a tip others should consider, leave a comment below!

Until next time,

Andrea

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