Why You Should Focus on Your Strengths as a Business Owner

People always say to focus on your weaknesses, but as a business owner, focus on what you're good at instead.

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We hear a lot about taking our weaknesses and working on them until we become strong in those areas.

Unfortunately, trying to turn weaknesses into strengths might not be the best or most efficient use of your time as a business owner. Recently, I came across a philosophy that recommends you focus on your strengths, rather than wasting time on weaknesses.

As a business owner, it can be tempting to try to do all the things all the time. Or at least spend time getting better at things you think will help you advance your business. The reality, though, is that you might be wasting valuable time and energy trying to turn yourself into something you’re not.

Leverage your strengths

When I was introduced to the StrengthsFinder concept, I was intrigued. You don’t necessarily have to take the test (it costs money), though, to see that it makes a certain kind of sense to focus on your strengths, especially for business owners.

Rather than trying to be better at things you aren’t particularly good at, it makes more sense to focus on the things you excel at and leverage those into bigger results.

It’s kind of like using the Pareto principle for your own business efforts. You know that 20 percent of your effort is the basis for 80 percent of the results you get from your business. As a result, it makes sense to focus on the things you do well -- the things that are most likely to give you those results.

By focusing more on what you’re good at, instead of wasting time trying to do things you’re bad at (and having the poor results hold you back), consider building off your strengths. You’ll see a better outcome in the long run.

Outsource your weaknesses

I’m a huge fan of outsourcing. I find that outsourcing the things I’m bad at (or just don’t have the time or energy to do) frees up the ability for me to focus on more important things.

Look at the things in your business that you aren’t good at. Can these tasks be outsourced to someone else? Could someone else do them more effectively?

If the answer is yes, there’s no reason for you to be wasting your time on them -- especially if you aren’t very good at it.

Instead, pay someone else to take care of those tasks. If you don’t have the money from your business to pay to outsource all of the things you aren’t good at, start with the most tedious and time-consuming task. Once someone else is doing that task, focus your energy on building your strengths and using those to grow your business at a faster rate.

Another way you can focus on your strengths is to find a business partner who can complement you. The right business partner will have strengths that offset your weaknesses. That way, you can both benefit from a growing business.

No matter how you handle your strengths and weaknesses, the reality is that your best results -- and better business growth -- will come when you focus on your strengths.

S.H.O.C.K. article By Miranda Marquit

 Quote of the Week: "The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer's place."  -Orison Swett Marden

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5 Things You Need To Improve Your Lead Generation And Grow Your Business

.H.O.C.K Strategic Marketing Newsletter.  Quote of the Week "Our work is the presentation of our capabilities." -Edward Gibbon

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Content is more useful than a lot of people realize. Too many companies spend time creating content but don’t do a whole lot to ensure that their content is useful and has an effect on their goals. Companies with this kind of approach aren’t doing content wrong, necessarily; they’re just not using content as well as they could (and, honestly, should).

The numbers back this up. Content marketing is used by the majority of marketers, but one of the biggest challenges for 61 percent of marketers around the world is generating traffic and leads. Your content is a perfect tool for this — but only when you've built a plan that works to use content for lead generation.

Content is versatile, and you can use it for many goals within your company. If consistently generating qualified leads is one of your goals, then here are five things you need to have in place in order to do exactly that:

1. An actual plan to use content for lead generation

To be able to use content for your lead gen goals, you need to have a crystal clear idea of how content actually works to attract, engage, and convert people in your audience. You can use the templates at www.shockmybusiness.com to generate leads with content if you need any help getting started.

Think about how you're encouraging your marketing and sales teams to talk to each other. Are they collaborating on content that speaks to the needs of your target audience? Have you laid out a clear path from one piece of content to the next that brings each visitor closer to conversion? Are you using all the content tools you have available — like your PR team, your blog, your email — to make this goal a reality?

2. Helpful, useful content

If the content you're creating isn't helpful to your audience members, they're not going to engage with your brand, let alone convert into a lead. Your goal should always be to help people with your content: address a pain point, answer a question, or help them get better at something.

You can do this with a variety of content, and content on your website and blog is a great start. But to really provide that extra education and help meet the needs of people who are coming to your site, consider producing longer-form, gated content, like reports, guides, and checklists.

Not only does this allow you to dive deeper and be even more helpful, but it also gives you the chance to collect valuable contact information about your audience members. The right gated content can reinforce your brand as a trustworthy resource and give you the chance to keep your audience members engaged over time.

3. Compelling landing pages

Now, if you've read any of my content or heard me speak anywhere, you've probably heard me say that your work isn't done once you produce a piece of content. That's true here, too. If you’re going to create gated content, then you're going to need landing pages. 

These are the pages where visitors trade their info for your content — so the stakes are pretty high. They're just as important as the gated content itself, so don’t get lazy when you're creating these pages. Create pages that compel visitors to take action, and ask for only the information you absolutely need to start effective follow-up communication.

4. Effective distribution and promotion plans

Of course, you can’t generate leads if nobody knows about the great content you’re creating. You need to get your brand and content in front of new people. Use any avenues you have to make this happen — share it on social media, contribute content to outside publications, invest in PR, leverage social promotion or Google Ads to promote the content. There are plenty of ways to get your content out there, so get creative.

5. Consistent contact and nurturing

One important thing to remember: Just because leads don’t show enthusiasm about your products or services right away doesn’t mean they won’t become customers at another time. Very, very few leads will be ready to buy right away, so make sure you've got a plan to keep your brand top of mind with those people.

Share content with them via personalized email campaigns, stay active on social media, and continue to be a resource for your audience members. Do what you can to build trust, and when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be the first person they call.

These five components are the building blocks for consistent lead generation with content marketing. Tailor each to fit your company and its needs, and you can start seeing your leads grow.

This article provided by John Hall the CEO of Influence & Co.

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This Company Forces Its Employees to Unplug and It Can't Stop Growing

You can have a company culture born of habits and happenstance or one that consciously aligns with your values and allows you to thrive. What's it gonna be?----By John Hall CEO and co-founder, Influence & Co

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Full Article: Culture is often overlooked when starting a business. You have to find customers, deal with growth, and tackle logistics, so culture isn't always at the top of the list. In fact, most company cultures form unintentionally out of personality and habits because, even though you know it's important, culture isn't paying to keep the lights on when you're just starting out.

But that's a mistake. Sure, you can grow your company without a strong culture. Uber did. But it's paying the price now, and new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is having to course-correct at a time when he should be able to focus on upward mobility.

Companies that last are the ones that build strong cultures from day one. Culture plays a key role in growth and agility in a constantly evolving marketplace. It can unify employees around a common goal, help you stay on course during tough times, and allow you to pivot quickly in new directions when needed -- plus, it's crucial to employee retention.

Build Off Existing Cultures That Work

As you might guess, building something that's this essential to your company's future isn't exactly easy, and it definitely doesn't happen overnight. One way to start is by understanding who you are as a company and what you value; then find examples of other companies that share your values, so you can get a feel for policies and attitudes that might work for you, too.

A good example of culture driving success is Bandwidth, a communications platform as a service company. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, it went public late last year and has since seen its stock steadily rise over 60 percent.

Like any company, Bandwidth is built around its founder, David Morken, who bootstrapped it over the first 10 years to a company of more 350 employees and a valuation over $630 million.

Every culture reflects its founder in some way. Morken values being active and unplugging for specific periods of time. The latter is somewhat rare, especially for a tech CEO, but his "vacation embargo" policy is one of the most progressive culture ideas in the country.

Align Your Culture With Your Values

Vacation time is mandatory at Bandwidth. You have to take it. The idea is simple: Bandwidth wants to keep its employees fresh and enable them to tackle challenges with new perspectives. That's hard to do when you're being pulled in a hundred different directions by notifications that always seem to demand your attention right this second.

One of the greatest challenges for organizations right now is focus. It's great you can now work from home or your favorite cafe or anywhere else, but that connectedness doesn't come without a price: We are constantly connected.

That's not a bad thing inherently, but it can be if you're expected to respond to an urgent email on a Saturday morning during your kid's soccer game or while you're on vacation. This constant, always-on state of connectivity leads to burnout. Consequently, it makes employees less motivated, less productive, and less excited to evangelize their own company.

No one wants to live like that. Morken, a father of six, said he values family time, so when he's on vacation, he can't be reached. Instead, he delegates responsibility and trusts his team. And every team member is afforded this same courtesy.

That's incredibly uncommon, especially for company founders, but the policy is strictly enforced because everyone in the company values it and would want the same in return. It's indicative of a culture of respect and trust, and it builds a bond throughout the organization.

Something to Remember ...

Unless you play an active role in building a culture that reinforces your values, then you're going to end up falling backward into reactive habits and processes that are going to be really hard to change down the road.

Your company is a reflection of you, so make sure your culture affords your employees the same things you'd want. The fastest way to lose trust and lower morale among your team members is to say one thing and then do another. Avoid that fallout by creating a culture that aligns with your values. The less you have to worry about fixing a broken culture, poor retention, and negative overall morale, the more you can concentrate on growing and thriving as a business now and in the future.

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