5 business blind spots that could be holding you back

There is a phenomenon I see with business owners all too often.

I call it the owner blind spot.

But before I get to that, let me ask you a question.

Have you ever (I know the answer) launched into a new direction with your business only to abandon it just weeks or months later?

Maybe it was a new effort to build followers on Instagram or get views on YouTube. Or a new lead generation strategy using email. Or maybe you decided to get up an hour earlier to work on finishing your first book.

Sound familiar?

I’ve had loads of ideas that, at first, seemed brilliant, sure-fire successes only to fail once it came to the grunt of execution.

Invariably, it wasn’t about the idea—I had a blind spot.

Here’s how it works.

When driving we all have a blind spot. It’s the area alongside our vehicle we can’t see but could lead to deadly consequences. In business, what’s hard to see are our motivations, aptitudes, skills, habits, and abilities.

We all have blind spots

The reality is we all have strengths and we all have blind spots. And the better we understand and work from our areas of strength, and mitigate our weaknesses the better and faster we can build our business.

In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham defines your strengths as something “you can fathom yourself doing it repeatedly, happily, and successfully.” I think of your business strengths as talents or habits you are naturally good at that also add value to your enterprise.

For example, I am good at envisioning a project and finding the discipline to chip away at it every day until complete. And I know I work better with urgency and deadlines. What I’m not so great at is day-to-day business maintenance, like checking email, coaching staff, or messing around with technology.

Based on that, I hired a full-time manager for my business who excels at details and execution of the routines we’ve built. I support him with system improvements that better manage our team of writers and serve our clients. And I try to stay out of his way.

Here are 5 questions to ask before taking on your next project.

1. Does it involve habits?

If you treasure spontaneity and every day being different, then run away from new ventures that rely heavily on routine, discipline, and repetition. Examples are: writing a book, a blog, publishing a podcast, or building a social media platform.

A test of this blind spot is how you typically react to advice about starting new habits, like morning meditation, daily journaling, walking, gym, and taking vitamins. If you tend to get excited about a new “life-changing” habit, only to drop it a week later, chances are your strength is as the creator, or leader, or in sales.

Outsource the rest.

2. Does it involve software?

A lot of online business strategies involve learning and mastering software. It’s hard to get around that one. This could be a big blind spot if you are pivoting from something like live training or speaking to online courses or membership programs (here’s where age does make a difference).

At the simplest level, you might need to update a Trello board, or make Calendly talk nicely with Zoom. More complicated ventures include: setting up a CRM, like ActiveCampaign or Convertkit, mastering an online course builder platform, like Teachable, or Thinkific, editing videos, or learning the basics with a graphic design program like Canva.

Here’s a simple test to know if you have a software blind spot: do you use shortcut keys? If you are not the kind of person who happily searches out hacks — like shortcut keys, or how to better organize your Inbox — then why do you think you’ll enjoy spending your weekends learning some complicated software?

The good news is that this might be the simplest part of your business to outsource.

3. Does it involve direct selling?

Here’s a tough one to get around.

Some business strategies involve good, old, eat-what-you-kill direct sales. Think real estate, car dealerships, but also, membership programs, affiliate deals, or selling physical products.

My business grows one customer at a time and every sale starts with a phone call or zoom meeting. I like it. I geek out on learning how people started their business, what they’re trying to build, and how we can help them.

If the thought of having dozens of conversations with strangers in order to land one sale gives you a rash, then direct sales are not for you.

Selling, especially for a small business, is hard to outsource. The alternative is to get a partner who loves selling or pivot to the kind of business that can grow with word-of-mouth advertising or referrals, like coaching, training, facilitation, and consulting.

4. Does it involve systems?

I define a system in business as something you design and build once, then it works to save you time and effort. In small business, systems include: recruiting, hiring, and managing contractors, shopping carts and online sales, email sequences, monthly reports to clients, publishing your blog or podcast or video.

You know this is a strength for you if you like solving complicated, repetitive delivery designs, like employing freelancers for onboarding new clients or publishing your blog or podcast.

The good news is that if you are clear on outcomes, there are lots of freelancers who geek out on this stuff.

5. Does it involve people?

If you have any ambition of growing your business beyond one product, or a handful of clients, you need people. For many business owners taking on their first employee or virtual assistant is the first, and often most difficult, hurdle to growth.

Some of my clients have virtual assistants (often grossly underutilized, but that’s for another article), or rely on one or two freelancers for work like graphic design, editing, or posting on social media.

You might have a delegation blind spot if you’ve ever been disappointed in the work someone did for you and you either: felt resentment (because you are working so much harder), resisted giving feedback, or fired the person without a second chance.

Early in my career, I learned the value of a good business coach to help me park my ego, focus on what was actually important, and more fully delegate responsibility to team members or freelancers.

I should have fired myself years ago

Given enough time, coaching, or experience we can all develop new skills and overcome our blind spots. It’s a question of goals.

If your goal is to build your business and do what you love, chances are there are parts you won’t love and will need to delegate. I spent too many years struggling to do work I have little aptitude for (like learning software programs) while ignoring the few areas of strength I do have.

I should have fired myself years ago.

Your job as the business owner is to recognize your blind spots not as weaknesses, but as opportunities to attract new talent so you are free to focus on your strengths.

That, in one sentence, is the secret to business leadership.

Photo of car mirror by Michael Skok on Unsplash

Photo or flip chart by Kaleidico on Unsplash