Every Business Owners Needs at Least One Turkey

Three wild turkeys spent several minutes staring through my office window today (that's the actual picture I took), and it sure did make me pause. 

At first, I assumed they were simply passing through but they seamed to have marched right up to my window intentionally and then stood there, looking in, all three of them.

Staring for long enough that I began to feel like I should either introduce myself or offer them a snack.

I was more than an hour into an online tech-support chat at the time. My computer was not cooperating, the person helping me kept disappearing to “check on something,” and the work I had planned to finish today was still sitting untouched.

I knew exactly what I saw from my side of the window: frustration, lost time and an afternoon that was not going according to plan. (Did I mention frustration? There was a lot of that!)

But as those three turkeys stared at me, I started wondering:

What did they see?

They certainly could not see everything happening on my computer screen. They did not know how long I had been waiting or what I had planned to accomplish that day.

From outside the window, the scene probably looked entirely different.

I have no idea what goes through the mind of a wild turkey, so I will not pretend they were admiring my business acumen. They may have been looking at their own reflections.

They may have thought I was the strange one sitting inside a glass box.

Still, the question stayed on my mind. 

What would someone else see if they were looking in right now?

We spend so much time inside our own businesses that our view starts to feel like the complete picture.

We see the employee who still needs more direction, the client issue that has not been resolved, the goal we thought we would have reached by now and the decision we keep moving to next week.

Other people are looking at the same business from a different view.

• An employee may see a company they are proud to be part of, while the owner sees everything that still needs improvement.
• A client may see tremendous value in something the owner has started taking for granted.
• A spouse may see how much the business follows the owner home, even when the owner insists everything is under control.
• A vendor may notice that every decision still has to pass through one person.
• A prospective buyer may see value the owner has never measured, or risk the owner has learned to work around so often that it no longer stands out.

None of those people has the entire picture, but each of them can see something that is harder to recognize from the inside of the business.

That outside perspective can be life changing.

It also made me laugh when I realized that, in some ways, I am the turkey for business owners!

I am often standing outside the window, looking in, seeing a different perspective than the owner.

I get to see the business without years of history attached to every decision. I can ask why something works the way it does without already knowing the ten reasons it “has to.” I can notice the strengths an owner has dismissed as normal, the opportunities hiding between different parts of the business, and the places where the company they built may no longer fit the life they want.

That does not mean the outside perspective is automatically right. Those turkeys had no idea what was happening on my side of the glass, and neither does an advisor until we ask questions and understand the full story.

However, sometimes it takes someone with a different view to ask the question that changes everything and bring clarity and direction..

The person inside the business may be asking: How do I get more done?

Someone outside may ask: Why does all of this still depend on you?

The owner may be asking: How do we grow revenue?

Someone outside may ask: What would growth actually improve for you?

The owner may be asking: How do I fix this part of the business?

Someone outside may notice that the business is performing exactly as it was designed—it was simply designed for an earlier version of the owner’s life.

We all have things we are too close to see. It is what happens when you have been living inside the glass box, solving the problems and being emotionally attached to people and decisions.

Eventually, the turkeys wandered away but I was no longer thinking only about what I could see from my side of the window.

I was thinking about the question those three unexpected visitors left behind:

What would someone else see if they looked at your business from the outside?

It may be one of the most useful questions a business owner can ask.

And apparently, one of the best ways to remember it is to have three turkeys stare at you while you are trapped in tech-support purgatory.

So...what would someone else see in your business? 

Business owners don't usually need more information. They need someone who can see what they've stopped seeing.

We're all too close to our own businesses. That's why I created the Business & Freedom Assessment. Simply to help owners step back and evaluate their business from a different perspective.

It won't tell you everything because no assessment can.

However, it will help you see patterns, strengths, and blind spots that are easy to miss when you're the one inside the business every day.

Sometimes the most valuable insight doesn't come from finding a new answer but rather asking different questions.

Take the Business & Freedom Assessment

 https://www.businesswealthadvisory.com/assessment

Until next time,

Go build a business your future self will thank you for.

Keep Exploring with Related Insights:

→ Are You Fishing in the Wrong Pond?

→ Your Business Doesn't Know What You Meant to Build