Converting your Business' Weaknesses into Opportunities for Growth

Dylan Notturno | Oct. 28, 2022

When we start a business, we often wonder when it's appropriate to start marketing. It’s common to question ourselves and be uncomfortable when proof of concept hasn’t been fully achieved. These feelings are normal especially for young entrepreneurs after launching a business and taking their ideas to the next level. The consequence of these doubts is that we quit too early or move too slowly, never realizing the full potential of our efforts. Each business has strengths and weaknesses that outline its opportunities to grow and the external threats the business faces. Understanding and accepting our weaknesses is part of growth, and doing so sooner rather than later can actually enable a business to grow faster than initially expected.

Identifying your Weaknesses

Weaknesses are the hurdles that every business has to overcome to move forward. How are “weaknesses” defined? Weaknesses are the factors that inhibit growth or limit the business in some way. Whether that takes the form of not being able to achieve a goal, meet a metric, offer a specific good or service, or any other type of limiting factor, a weakness can be devastating. These limitations can also make it difficult to connect with your target audience. Entrepreneurs can gain a great deal of insight from sitting down and identifying their weaknesses and asking others for feedback. It is easy to perceive limitations as a bad thing–and in some cases people choose to ignore them outright–but in many respects understanding and accepting a weakness is a positive.

By taking the time to identify what internal factors are working against the success of your ideas, 

the better prepared you are to tackle them head on.

The easy path would be to ignore the weaknesses that threaten success, or even refuse to accept their existence, but that mentality does not promote any positive development. Once a business has acknowledged the factors that are holding them back, it is important to shift their mindset and view these weaknesses instead as opportunities for growth and improvement.

Understanding your role in a Customer’s Journey

Perceiving a weakness as a good thing isn’t an easy task for everyone, but when we think about our businesses it is important to remember that they exist for the consumer. As such, by putting yourself in the shoes of a customer of your business, you can think about weaknesses in terms of the consumer journey. I recently developed a marketing plan for a business that was anxious about marketing their services because they do not have the full capabilities of their competitors. Additionally, their target segment includes a large number of individuals who are very informed on what their needs are, and so the team is questioning their ability to provide value to their audience. One simple solution would be to purchase the necessary equipment and negate your weakness with money. Unfortunately, a business doesn’t always have the funds to solve their problems this way. An alternative could be to simply do nothing, but again, weaknesses somehow can become opportunities, so if that’s the case, shouldn’t you do something? The answer is yes!

These fears and doubts revolve around the notion that a business is scared to market themselves “too soon.” In practice, we are bound to make mistakes and fumble at certain moments, and that is part of the growth process. So if everyone is suffering from growing pains, why should we deem those failures or shortcomings as having done something “too soon,” when instead it’s simply setting our business up for future success; gaining invaluable experience and insight now so we can support future growth down the road.

Businesses need to start providing value when they can, instead of debating internally about whether or not they should. If you have something beneficial to provide, how would your potential customer feel if you withheld it from them?

By focusing on providing as much value as possible, when it's possible,

you enable your business to start forming relationships.

While a company may lack the infrastructure to provide a certain service, that does not limit the business from investigating a customer’s needs and determining if value can still be provided. Your business might not be able to participate in that customer’s entire journey, but you can certainly be there for the moments that are relevant to what your business is able to provide. This way, value has still been created and provided, and a relationship has been established, enabling more opportunities down the road once your business has the expertise or assets necessary. 

Brands are Built on Promises

As a business grows over time it develops a brand. There are many factors that define a brand, but one of the most critical is a business’ ability to deliver on promises. Simply put, a promise is a guarantee to a customer on how your business can and will deliver value. Promises are only valid if they are kept. If your business takes longer than expected on an order with no reasonable justification, guarantees that you can perform a task that is outside of your abilities (and not doing so successfully), or any other example of your actions not matching your words, then you are breaking a promise. This can quickly kill trust with your audience.

When you are attempting to measure brand awareness and loyalty,

people will quickly recall the promises you made but didn't keep.

Identifying and accepting weaknesses is a vital step in ensuring that the promises made to your audience can be achieved. Converting these weaknesses to opportunities to deliver value that you know is within your abilities enables you to slowly but surely build loyalty for your brand. This is how a business grows: You do not have to be there at every step of a customer’s journey, or be the final solution to their problem, you simply have to deliver the value that you can, and not commit to what you can’t guarantee within a reasonable margin. By focusing on these concepts of value, relationships, and promises, even the newest entrepreneurs can adjust their mindset towards weaknesses to instead start identifying opportunities. If value can be delivered, there is something to market.