As a soloist it is an obvious statement that the business relies on you. So if there is an area where you lack confidence, it’s going to affect your business. This got me thinking – how can we turn our weaknesses into strengths?
Listed below are three questions that can hopefully help you to identify areas of weakness, where they come from and a possible plan of attack.
1. Is the worry worth your while?
Say you are feeling insecure about a lack of knowledge in a certain area. I got intimidated by book-keeping, for example. “Is the worry worth your while?” is a great question to ask.
No one person can be good at everything, as much as they may want to be. It’s important to select skills to develop that will directly affect your business.
Last week, I spent six work hours completing my Business Activity Statement for the last quarter. This is something I plan not to do again, ever. I am a designer and not an accountant. So I thankfully now have a bookkeeper to do all of this for me. It can be said that this area has now become a strength in my business even if I am not the one physically completing the task.
2. Did you know?
Many weaknesses stem from a simple lack of knowledge. I heard a story about a lady that was cooking a roast lamb for her guests. She proceeded to spend the time and effort to cut the roast in half before putting it in the oven. One of the guests asked why she did this and she mentioned that it was an age old family tradition. Her mother had always done it so she had never thought to question why.
When the dinner party was over, the lady became curious and decided to find out the answer. After asking various family members, she discovered that eighty years ago the oven owned by the family was very small. So small in fact that the roast lamb needed to be cut in half to fit.
The key to turning weaknesses into strenghts is to always evaluate our actions and ask questions. We can always become better and grow stronger in areas we never thought to take notice of.
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3. What are you afraid of?
As business owners, we are all familiar with jumping in the deep end and doing something that scares us. The question is, are we continually challenging ourselves? I know when I am getting a bit too comfortable when the work stops coming in and then I have to find the energy to go out there and hunt for it. This can be a scary thought and all kinds of fears can swim around in our head that would cause us to be held back.
A few years ago, I took on a dare from one of my friends and decided to do a tandem skydive. This was facing a pretty huge fear in entrusting my life to a total stranger that, as it turned out only had one leg – though he assured me that it did not happen on a jump.
The experience completely enlarged my perspective. So now when I am preparing to do some cold calls I can remind myself that it can’t possibly be as scary as jumping out of a plane.
I’m not sure that everyone would want to go skydiving just to get that revelation but everyone has different challenges to face and different methods to face them. The trick is to identify the fears you have in running your business and strategising methods that will personally help you to face and overcome them. You never know what amazing opportunities are waiting on the other side.
If you have any other examples where you have turned weaknesses into strengths, feel free to comment below.