American Dream

Starting a Business: Tips for Overcoming Business ADD

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When you’re starting a business, make sure your personality type doesn’t inadvertently cause your business’s launch to slow to a crawl. Some people with a more creative personality might find that they have “business ADD.” They can start businesses, but they have a really tough time finishing a project and launching it. If this is you, don’t despair. There are things you can do to help you overcome yourself.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Creator Personality Type

How Money Walks previously spoke with Randal Wark, owner of IT Revolution, about why taking a personality test is essential to running a business. During the interview, Randal shared that he has a “creator” personality according to the Wealth Dynamics test. This personality type excels at public speaking, writing, creating new ideas, and thinking outside the box—but struggles with finishing projects and launching them.

“As a creator, it’s like you have business ADD,” Randal explains. “You always find a new flashy project you want to do. Just before you finish the last one, you’re on to a new project. It’s almost self sabotage—you may never allow your ideas to fully develop. You may have trouble finishing that last 20 percent.”

Business ADD may have its weaknesses, but it also comes with a lot of strengths that can help you be a great leader. How can you overcome the side of you that makes it tough to complete tasks and follow through with starting a business?

Find a Detail-Oriented Person to Help

Randal says that he surrounded himself with people who love details and who can finish the projects he’s started. When you search for people to help with your business, look specifically for personalities whose strengths complement your weaknesses. Look for a person who loves details and working on infrastructure, or someone who enjoys contacting people and scheduling events and meetings. Look for someone who’s organized and focused. If you and your employees can focus on your strengths, your business will thrive.

Wealth Dynamics explains that the creator personality type is great at creating profitable ideas but not so great at the day-to-day requirements. “Successful creators will delegate everything, except the creative process,” the website notes.

Other Ideas That Can Help

While you look for someone to add to your team, there are a few things you can do. First, seek out a to-do app that uses gamification to make completing those boring, mundane tasks more interesting. And don’t try to force yourself to do all the detailed work at once. Instead, put your tasks on a must-do list and sprinkle them in around your more interesting work.

Give yourself a gut check. Take time to think about what might be stopping you from successfully launching a business. Are you afraid of failure or criticism? Do you enjoy daydreaming about success so much that you already feel like you’ve succeeded? Are you afraid of setting the bar too high?

One final word for those with business ADD: Don’t get too creative with your perfectionism. No business is going to be absolutely perfect the moment it’s launched. You’ll always be able to think of more interesting bells and whistles to add. As someone with business ADD, you’ll be more motivated if you have the momentum of success to propel you. So go ahead and launch that business before it’s perfect. The rush of success will give you an extra oomph to keep working on growing the business.

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