Do You Know Your Strengths?
Take some time to consider what you believe are the strengths of your business. These could be seen in terms of your staff, products, customer loyalty, processes, or location. Evaluate what your business does well; it could be your marketing expertise, your environmentally-friendly packaging, or your excellent customer service. It’s important to try to evaluate your strengths in terms of how they compare to those of your competitors. For example, if you and your competitors provide the same prompt delivery time, then this cannot be listed as strength. However, if your delivery staff is extremely polite and helpful, and your competitor’s staff has very few customer-friendly attributes, then you should consider listing your delivery staff’s attitude as a strength. It is very important to be totally honest and realistic. Try to include some personal strengths and characteristics of your staff as individuals, and the management team as individuals. Whatever you do, you must be totally honest and realistic: there’s no point creating a useless work of fiction!
Getting an Outside Viewpoint
It’s a good idea to get an outside viewpoint on what your weaknesses are as your own perceptions may not always marry up to reality. You may strongly believe that your years of experience in a sector reflect your business’s thorough grounding and knowledge of all of your customers’ needs. Your customers, on the other hand, may perceive this wealth of experience as an old-fashioned approach that shows unwillingness to change and work with new ideas. Be prepared to hear things you may not like, but which, ultimately, may be extremely helpful.
Confidence is a Key Point When it Comes to Your Strength
Even if you aren’t feeling confident, project the image of how you aspire to be. Dress appropriately, stand tall, and walk with your shoulders back. This posture, whether in public or alone, automatically instills confidence in your self-worth and an enhanced image of your value in the business world. Practice the postures of a confident person and you will be more confident.
Take Action
Taking steps toward a task or a goal is the ultimate anxiety buster. Action builds conviction, which your clients will see in your eyes and your demeanour. Each step along your entrepreneurial path will reveal another step to be taken. So get into Action!
Record your Achievements
Daily, weekly, monthly, take a few minutes to write down what you’ve achieved. Big or small achievements, they all count. Remember that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time and the analogy to self-development is also true, whether or not you ever eat a real elephant in your entire life. Any great achievement is merely the sum total of all the step-by-step achievements and learning experiences along the way.
