Why Blindspots in Your Business Suck and How to Avoid Them
Knowing the right time to make the leap into business is daunting - especially when you don’t know anything about business! This week on Amplify Your Business with Matt J Hanham I’m joined by Storydriven founder Dennis Gomez. Find out how to best improve your skill set and how to avoid business blindspots.
Who is Dennis Gomez
Founder of Sydney video agency Storydriven Dennis Gomez is connecting business owners to their customers through video marketing. Dennis’ vision is to connect businesses to their consumers and create meaningful and lasting relationships.
How to Build Enough Skill to Start a Business
Being skilled in your craft doesn’t mean you’re prepared to own a business. Owning a business is a skill in itself, and one hell of a shock to the system if you’re not equipped to tackle it.
Dennis didn’t begin his journey thinking he would become a business owner. He was actually content learning and being told what to do, and when to do it. Dennis went through several film schools, with traditional education on how to become a filmmaker. The first job he got in the film industry was editing wedding videos. It was a great training ground for Dennis to hone his skillset and practice the art of filmmaking. He began as an editor and moved his way up to camera operator until he began talking to couples and booking his own gigs. Not only was Dennis developing his videography skills but it also became a crash course in business.
Over time the learning on the job began to plateau from the repetitive nature of wedding videography.
“The reality is once you’ve seen one wedding, you’ve seen them all”, Dennis said.
“Only when you’re sober,” I joked.
Dennis was ready to venture out and try something new. From here Dennis fell into corporate video production. Prior to starting Storydriven he was a creative director at a production agency.
The lesson learnt from Dennis’ story is that you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re thrown into the deep end. Dennis began Storydriven only once he was confident in his video production skillset and believed that there was more for him to share on a higher level.
Breaking the Cycle
When you are employed you get complacent to being comfortable. You are typically paid every fortnight. You clock in at 8AM and clock out at 5PM. You pawn off responsibility to those higher than you to deal with. You can switch off at the end of the day. Owning a business is different. You are constantly clocked on and the business never stops moving.
Dennis was in this cycle. He was comfortable, and he liked being told what to do. But there was a lack of fulfilment.
Dennis began to read more books and attend entrepreneurial conferences. He joined groups and began to speak to different people about their own journey. Dennis knew he wanted to do more and take his passion for video production to the next level. It eventually came to a point where Dennis had to be all or nothing.
“I can’t stay employed when I’m trying to grow a business. I won’t be doing a good job with either,” Dennis said.
If you truly want to be a business owner you need to cut the cord at some point. The side-hustle life may work for some people. Scaling a business requires you to work at it full-time. It can be scary but the payoff is worth the risk if you know what you’re working towards.
Business Blindspots
Business blindspots are inevitable. Unless you’ve owned 10 businesses before owning your current business. And I hate to say it – but even THEN you are still susceptible to blindspots. There are going to be things that you don’t know, and they will slap you in the face when you least expect it.
Dennis shares that he had a mentor coaching him through the early days of Storydriven. His mentor said:
“Regardless of your experience in business, everyone has blindspots. I have 10 years of experience in business and one blindspot was enough for me to close my doors,” Dennis recounts.
The problem with new business owners is that they’re not preparing for the future. They get a few wins on the board and then they begin to act blazay just from a bit of luck. Although the luck was won from hard work – things change and you need to be ready for it.
With the emergence of different technologies and consumer behaviour every business is experiencing disruption. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It depends on how you respond to disruption and how you can leverage change to improve the success of your business.
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