Business blind spots.
Three simple words that can make or break you and your business.
Is your business successful?
If you answered ‘yes’, it’s because your competitors had business blind spots that you found and acted on.
Your competitors didn’t.
Now your successful at your competitor’s expense.
How do you leverage business blind spots to your benefit?
A great question.
The brightest minds at Blackberry and Kodak either didn’t ask this question or act on it.
The end results were two industry giants obliterated from business blind spots.
But don’t despair, there’s a tremendous upside to business blind spots.
I should know. Remember me? I was the kid right out of school with no experience, money, or team when I started my EdTech.
Failure became my new BFF. Most morning it took everything I had to get out of bed to only face more failure.
What I didn’t know was that failure was acting as my success compass and had me stay away from things that didn’t work.
With much grit, effort, and passion my EdTech became successful. All was great until I realized I had a new set of business blind spots.
Left unto themselves, the new business blind spots would put me out of business.
And let’s face it, who better to put you out of business than you!?
Business blind spots became my new BFF. And from the business blind spots arose my 9-figure exit.
How did I do it and how can you do the same?
Keep reading.
How Do You Avoid Business Blind Spots? Be Afraid, Very Afraid Of Your Success
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect – Mark Twain
Business blind spots don’t discriminate. Industry giants, with their success and money, are as susceptible as inexperienced newbies.
How do you avoid business blind spots?
Be afraid, very afraid of your success.
Success is a wonderful thing until it isn’t.
Are you always asking how you can be successful?
Stop it.
You’re asking the wrong question.
Instead, the better question to ask is how do you become and remain successful?
The answer is that when you realize success, don’t let it get to your head.
Success is a wonderful thing.
That said, nothing is perfect, including success.
Pure success is intoxicating, and if left unchecked, you believe that you can do anything.
You drink your kool-aid, and now you’re prancing around like the emperor with no clothes.
Your competitors cheer you on as they work on a market disruption that will decimate you.
How do you remain successful? Find and solve your business blind spots.
This point hits home at a personal level. After my 9-figure exit, I launched a diabetic supply company that became 7-figures.
7-figures of losses.
How did I rack up 7-figures of losses with the same business partner, more experience and money?
Read my article ‘7 Success Secrets Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know About Passion.’
How do you protect yourself and your business?
You need to know one simple thing.
What’s this one thing?
Keep reading to find out. Do this now, and you’ll thank me later.
Past Results Don’t Guarantee Future Results
As you have sown so shall you reap – Marcus Tullius Cicero
How do you avoid business blind spots?
Know that your past results are no guarantee for your future results.
The only thing you can count on is change. People, your business, and the marketplace change. All day. Every day.
What worked for you yesterday may not work today, let alone tomorrow.
Smart entrepreneurs identify business blind spots by finding a change in the marketplace.
So should you.
What can do you do?
Start by reading ‘10 Amazingly Simple Secrets On How To Build A Successful Business.’
Next, look at your company culture.
You’re a smart entrepreneur whose company runs without you, right?
If you answered ‘no,’ you better get your game in gear. Whether you plan to exit your company, or not, your company must run without you.
Why?
Among many other things, so you can find and obliterate business blind spots.
Ensure your company culture is closer to ‘paranoid’ than ‘complacent.’
Paranoid?
Yes, paranoid.
Paranoid of what?
Paranoid that your customers leave you for better services solutions. In other words, you and your team are paranoid that you’re company will go out of business.
Am I saying that a healthy dose of paranoia helps find business blind spots?
Yes.
But too much paranoia is as dangerous as being complacent. There’s a fine balance.
That said, there’s one simple thing you and your team can do to keep your company on point.
What’s this one simple thing?
Keep reading to find out.
Business Blinds Spots Happen When You Ignore Your Customers’ Painful Problems
Every problem has a gift for you in its hands – Richard Bach
Business blind spots are your friend, not the enemy.
How so?
When you find business blind spots, you’re finding an opportunity to serve.
How did I go from failure to a 9-figure exit?
Read the details here and here.
My business and profits grew as I continued to find and obliterate business blind spots.
I asked one simple question to every one of my customers: “When it comes to your business, what keeps you up at night?”
Every now and again I stumbled upon a zinger of a problem.
I’ll never forget the day when I asked the question to one of my first customers.
“Jeffrey,” he said, “your company has done a great job of keeping my students in their seats. But now I’m having problems filling the seats.”
A thirty-second exchange that forever changed the destiny of my company.
I learned that ‘filling the seats’ was a massive problem for both my customer and the entire industry.
Looking back, I now see that had I not asked this one question, my EdTech would have gone the way of Kodak and Blackberry.
The idea of filling the seats was a huge business blind spot for my EdTech.
Business blind spots came to the rescue for me.
If you’d like to unlock your future success, you must do one thing.
What’s this one thing?
There’s only one way to find out.
Keep reading.
How Do You Obliterate Business Blind Spots And Win? Put Yourself Out Of Business
The best way to predict the future is to create it – Peter Drucker
It’s the smart entrepreneur who looks to the uncovering of business blind spots as a gift.
A gift?
Yes, a gift that gives you insights on how to grow your business, or better yet, put yourself out of business.
Put yourself out of business?
If you don’t put yourself out of business, your competition will do the honors for you.
When my customer identified one of the business blind spots we both faced, he gave me a gift.
My EdTech, Embanet, started out offering universities hosting, course conversion, and technical support.
Keeping the seats filled is what Embanet excelled at.
Filling the seats was one of the business blind spots that became my obsession.
The opportunity to put ‘Embanet I’ out of business from ‘Embanet II’ became my mandate.
Embanet II started by creating a new division that lost money year-over-year.
Watching hard-earned profits from Embanet I vaporize in Embanet II was difficult.
Grit, passion, and faith kept things moving forward.
It took three years for Embanet II to figure out how to fill the seats better than anyone else.
Embanet I became a rounding error in revenue and profits compared to Embanet II.
The ability for Embanet II to stand on the shoulders of success from Embanet I made the difference. Embanet II leveraged the reputation and track record of Embanet I.
And best of all, it was me and not the competition that was putting Embanet I out of business.
Business blind spots are an opportunity in the making, but only if you act.
How do you obliterate business blind spots and win? Find a way to put your existing offering out of business with your new offering.
You can take that to the bank.
Business Blind Spots Identify Painful Problems Keeping Your Customers Up At Night
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations – Charles R. Swindoll
Business blind spots identify painful problems keeping your customers up at night.
Looking to create a fortune and build an empire? Find and solve painful problems.
Painful problems are opportunities in disguise. Somebody will solve these painful problems, so why not you?
Finding business blind spots are one thing. Obliterating business blind spots through creative solutions is something else.
Enter your passion and belief to unlock your sweet success.
[[How do you unlock massive opportunity and prosper? Find and act on business blind spots.]]
Find a problem that affects many people and is so painful that people are only too happy to pay you to take the pain away.
That, my Rockstar, is the heart of entrepreneurialism. All day. Every day.
If you’re smart, and I know you are, while you’re solving the problem you’ll also change your business model.
Why?
Chances are your business model sucks.
But no worries, you can conquer and win when you know how to increase the value of your business.
Know this, and know this well.
Business blind spots are an early warning sign of unsolved problems.
What can you do?
Listen more and talk less with your customers and employees to discover what keeps your customers up at nights.
When you become an avenger of business blind spots, you’ll keep your business on top.
Conclusion
Business blind spots are either the kiss of death or a doorway to massive success.
You choose.
And while you’re thinking, know that your competition is figuring out how to put you out of business. Today.
It was an innocent conversation with a customer that changed my fortune and destiny.
Both my EdTech and myself were young and inexperienced. My customer did me the favor of sharing a painful problem that kept him up at nights.
My desire to help my customer became my obsession.
When you lead the way with business blind spots, you put your existing company out of business. And this is great news.
Why?
You replace your existing company with a new one that will become bigger and more profitable.
My 9-figure exit is a direct result of finding and obliterating business blind spots.
Finding business blind spots isn’t easy. If in doubt, remember both Kodak and Blackberry.
How do you find business blind spots?
When speaking with your customers and employees, listen more and talk less. The frustrations you hear are opportunities otherwise known as business blind spots.
Where do you start and what can you do, you ask?
Start at the beginning. In each section of outlined specific strategies that took my EdTech from ‘zero’ to ‘hero.’
And if I could do it, as the kid out of school who started his company with no money, experience, or team, so can you.
So what are you waiting for?
Here’s to you and your success!
Thanks.
Your BIGGEST Raving Fan,
Jeffrey Feldberg