Uncover Your Blind Spots

Quick Insight

In a small business, SWOT analysis strengths and weaknesses mirror those of the owners. Owners can’t see the company’s weaknesses because it's hard to see our own weaknesses. Customer and employee surveys, mastermind groups, and business coaching are all ways to uncover your company’s deficiencies.


“In my experience, the reason people often fail to grow and improve isn’t that they lack the ability. Instead, they lack awareness of their skills and skill deficiency...

They lack self-awareness. Additionally, they haven’t cultivated the coaches who could help them identify their skill deficiencies...

Consequently, a surprising number of thoughtful people cannot identify where they need to improve or cannot formulate an action plan to address skill deficiencies. Essentially, they are flying blind.” – Robert Steven Kaplan in What You’re Meant To Do

This is true for individuals and for companies. For individuals, this is done through a skills assessment. For a company, it’s done through SWOT analysis.

In a small business, SWOT analysis strengths and weaknesses mirror those of the owners. Owners can’t see the company’s weaknesses because it's hard to see our own weaknesses. Sometimes we don’t want to admit our weaknesses. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. It may be easier to identify a personal weakness through how it impacts our company.

Customer and employee surveys, mastermind groups, and business coaching are all ways to uncover your company’s deficiencies.

I wish you awareness of your path to improvement. I wish you well.

- Rob Stephens


Further Insight


CFO Perspective Resources

  • Free Download: SWOT Analysis Template - The SWOT template pack comes with five documents to help you quickly conduct a SWOT analysis.
  • Free Download: Start Stop Continue Template - This fillable PDF template is a quick way to summarize what you should start, stop, and continue based on ideas from you, your customers and your employees.
  • Video: How Do You Create Value? - You get what you value when you provide value to others. Business success comes from creating value for owners, customers, and employees. I’ll explain how to discover and increase what each group values. I’ll also reveal the “Three D’s” and “Three P’s” that each group wants.
  • Course: ACE - Strategic Planning for Small Businesses - Small business strategic planning should quickly lead you from defining where you are going to deciding how to get there. Getting there takes a well-built strategy and implementation plan. Get planning and management tools with the basics of how to use them.
  • Course: Creating Value - Business Success from Shared Value - You get what you value when you provide value to others. Business success comes from creating value for owners, customers, and employees. In this program, you'll identify exactly what each of these three groups value and how to increase that value - and your success.

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