How Do I Know What I Don’t Know?
Photo by Robin Higgins via Pixabay
Running a business is a very interesting adventure. One of the trickiest things to discover is what you don’t know. Now you might think that that would actually be easy, but it isn’t. Many entrepreneurs don’t know what they don’t know and they don’t know how to discover that before it becomes a problem.
I like to watch shows like Restaurant Impossible where an industry expert comes in and helps failing business owners discover why they are not successful. Most of the time, the issue with their business is that they didn’t know what they should have been doing. They knew problems, but they didn’t know how to solve them. The expert provides them with what they were lacking - the knowledge of how to address problems (and new decor).
So how do you figure out how to know what you don’t know? You can actually take some hints from the lifelines on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
Phone a Friend - This lifeline allowed you to call someone to help you answer the question. When I first wanted to start my business, I wasn’t sure what kind of consulting I wanted to do. I knew I was good at giving advice, but had too many areas to choose from. I didn’t know what I would enjoy doing full-time and I didn’t know what people wanted to pay for. A friend of mine had his own leadership coaching business, so I contacted him for help. He helped me identify the choices and determine how to sort through them based on what I was best at and wanted to accomplish. As part of this process, we utilized the second lifeline 50/50.
50/50 - This lifeline removed 2 of the multiple choice answers so the contestant only had to pick from 2 options rather than 4. As a business owner, you make tons of choices all of the time. How do you know what is the best choice? Reviewing the options in relation to your business plan, company goals, brand identity, and budget is a good place to start. Eliminating options helps you to hone your business and maintain its identity so that it can grow and thrive. Some of the choices I had to choose from were not a good option for who I was or where I was conducting business. This helped me zoom in to what would give me the best opportunity for success.
Ask the Audience - This lifeline allowed contestants to take a poll from the studio audience for the answer. Taking a poll is a great way to get feedback and information. For entrepreneurs, your audience consists of your customers, your competitors, your industry, business experts, regulatory entities, and the government. Each of these groups can provide you with feedback and information that you need in order to run a successful business. And unlike the show, you can poll them whenever you need to and I highly recommend that you do!
Running a business is challenging, but you have lifelines that will help you overcome.
Contact me for help with your business administration challenges.