Know your Strengths

4th June 2015

I went to a seminar today. I haven’t been to one for a while, but as ever I learnt several new things, and have come back to the office full of new ideas as to what we could use to improve what we do. Making a commitment to taking action from what I have learned is essential, or else I would just be wasting my time listening to people, thinking “that’s a good idea” and doing nothing about it.

But perhaps most importantly it came home to me how much more sensible it is to use people from outside the business who specialise in certain areas, rather than try to do it all ourselves. Naturally I would always encourage any clients to save money where reasonably and sensibly possible, but if the discipline they are trying to do is not something they know much about, then it is almost certainly going to waste both their time and their money.

Time and time again, my clients will tell me that they will try “doing it first” before they call on outside help, and time and time again I advise them against it. Writing their own contracts, building their own websites, doing their own book-keeping are all great examples of a business owner wasting their time, if this is not their strength. Worse than that, it can actually turn out to be detrimental to the business. Taking the examples above, there are so many different types of contract, you are almost certain to make mistakes and potentially end up with a big cost, or your website may end up looking cheap and unprofessional, or the books/tax returns are not done properly, or late, and again you end up with a fine.

So remember, as a business owner, you are highly unlikely to be good at everything, so consider outside help before you commit lots of time and money to a lost cause. Perhaps you should even consider a Business Coach.

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