Blind spots are areas in our business that we just can’t see. And those blind spots can hinder performance, miss opportunities, or cause financial leaks. Blind spots are not a failure or mistake created by the founder but they’re dark corners in your space that you haven’t been able to recognize because you are too close to the situation.
Many blind spots arise because we are comfortable in our current status. Others arise because we are wearing too many hats. A few arise because we just didn’t know where to look or consider a different option. Blind spots often occur because we don’t have proper guidance. Finding the blind spots takes another set of eyes on your business that is not on the inside.
Here are a few places to look for blind spots in your business.
Financial Blind Spots:
Your firm’s financials can be a tricky area. It takes a certain skill set to be able to locate missed opportunities. Many rely solely on the tax professionals or bookkeepers to help but these types of advisors are focused on savings. There are other advisors that focus on growth opportunities that may require additional spending and innovation. Your financials also include the pricing structure, cost of goods sold, cost of sales, and many other hidden spots. They may hide in your payroll too. These blind spots can make or break your firm’s profit.
Operational Blind Spots:
Operational blind spots are hidden all over the day-to-day work. These are often inefficiencies in the systems and processes or simply the lack of setup. The way you run your business can be full of unrecognized blind spots. Common or repetitive activities can be evaluated for importance, time, cost, equipment, labor, or delivery. Operational blind spots are the easiest to recognize once evaluated and the easiest to improve. Simply, review what you are doing and see if improvements can be made. Make 1 or 2 improvements at a time and then evaluate again. Over time your production will improve and your profits will increase.
Organizational Blind Spots:
During your growing phase, you will be looking at your team for improvements. Do you need another set of hands or could a change in personnel be a better solution? Ensuring that you have the right people doing the right job at or close to capacity is the ideal situation for your team. Getting the most from your team is where blind spots can occur. Looking through your organizational chart is a great place to start. Are there too many middle managers? Do you have enough flexible staff or skilled team members doing technical work? Or worse, are you, as the founder, doing jobs that you shouldn’t be handling? Reviewing the needed tasks and skillsets can find your organizational blind spots and get them fixed fast.
Product or Service Blind Spots:
Blind spots in your offering can be a real game killer! These can occur when you aren’t in line with your customer's problems, needs, and wants. It could be something as simple as your marketing message, a design flaw, or the product is no longer relevant. Offer blind spots could even be the pricing or packaged bonuses that come along with it. Value and trust are the 2 most important features you can provide along with convenience in today’s easy-to-get online delivery world. Knowing exactly what your customer wants and how they want it is key to your success. Where the blind spots occur is how often the customer’s life changes. What was once good can change quickly when something else catches their eye. Your firm’s innovation will keep you fresh and in mind.
Blind spots can occur anywhere inside and outside of your business. Asking for help from professionals, mentors, coaches, and advisors is the best way to be able to find them. Be open to innovating what you are providing and improving the way you are doing it. Blind spots will never go away, but you can improve your business vision by stepping outside of the business to get a different look.
Marcia Riner is a business growth strategist and the CEO of Trajectory Consulting. She helps professional service firm owners to optimize their business, drive growth, and to be in a great position to sell it someday. Together, she helps you create your roadmap to improve, scale, and maximize the value of your company.
Marcia hosts a weekly podcast with videos on YouTube @ www.Youtube.com/profitwithaplan and audio @ www.profitwithaplan.com. She also shares business growth tips on her YouTube Channel @Marcia Riner
She runs a masterclass where she teaches business owners how to optimize and scale their business so that they can sell it someday @ www.Scale2Sell.biz
Want more great ideas, download Marcia’s newest eBook “Think Outside The Box – 10 Reasons To Get Your Business Sale-Ready Now” available on www.TrajectoryBiz.com