As a financial professional, you likely have a natural skill or ability that has helped you succeed in money management, financial planning and working with people to improve their financial lives. Are you known for your mathematical mind, keen problem solving abilities and analytical chops? Do you excel at recruiting clients and making complex concepts easy to understand? No matter what you hang your hat on, even the best financial professionals must learn to embrace both the areas where they shine and the areas where they can improve.
By recognizing your strengths and weaknesses as a business owner, you can better your bottom line, while giving your clients the highest possible level of service. Follow these steps to build up your business for bigger success.
1. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror
Self-awareness can make or break your business. Few people enjoy being criticized or focusing on their flaws, but as a business owner, it is your prerogative to take an objective look at yourself to identify both strengths and weaknesses. If you blindly operate your business, ignoring the parts of it that you don’t enjoy or do not excel at, you could wind up costing yourself a fortune in wasted time, money or unhappy clients.
Similarly, taking an attitude of “just get it done” could lead you to put in too much time or money. Because some parts of the business are not optional, getting to know yourself can help you know where you need to focus on improvement and where you can focus for greater results.
2. Assess your strengths and weaknesses
You can’t simply examine yourself in the mirror and see your strengths and weaknesses. It requires effort and introspection. To gain better insights, you can also look to people who know you well, as well as tried and trusted tests and tools.
Ask your spouse or partner, employees and colleagues to give you candid, constructive feedback on where they see you doing well and struggling most. If there is a part of the business they see you enjoying over others, that’s a good sign it is a strength. The areas you tend to procrastinate are probably the opposite.
Personality tests like Insights Discovery or Myers-Briggs can give you further objective insights into what makes you tick.
3. Improve your skills, outsource or delegate to overcome challenges
For every weakness, you have an opportunity to take a constructive approach. Some minor weaknesses that are also essential business skills may have to be learned or practiced. Business networking, for example, is vital for financial professionals, but doesn’t come naturally to all. Practice and effort can help you thrive.
If your weakness lands in any administrative part of your business, you may be able to hire an assistant, either in-person or an online, virtual assistant to handle those areas of the business for you. That frees up your time to focus on the areas you enjoy or need to pay attention to most.
Even large corporations outsource some tasks to third-party firms. From accounting to technology to legal to marketing needs, sometimes the best choice is to pay someone else to handle challenging parts of your business for you.
4. Never stop working to better yourself and your business
Financial professionals aren’t typically the first to come to mind when someone thinks of a small business owner. But you probably operate like many other small businesses. This means dealing with a wide range of issues, including many that you help your clients deal with every day. Take a step back and look at your business and your skills with your eyes wide open.
As a financial professional and business owner, you always have a chance to learn something new. And remember, if you are constantly challenging yourself to improve, you and your business will be primed for success.
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