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Fear of failure could be the reason why so many New Zealand businesses will make the mistake of focussing on their weaknesses when it comes to business planning for 2016.

Auckland small business mentor Chris Baker says that almost every SME business owner or entrepreneur he has worked with has wanted to fix their weaknesses, instead of improving their strengths, which is where the real business growth opportunities are.

When doing a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) in planning for business in the New Year, entrepreneurs treat the strengths part like filling in a form. It's a given, and requires no more attention. Instead they get caught up in their weaknesses and how they can fix them.

I think it's because so many SME owners have a fear of failure, or fear of loss, and perhaps that's influenced by the recession we've just come through. Perhaps it's because as Kiwis we like to stay humble and self effacing, but it's not a good formula for success particularly when you have staff depending on you for their livelihood, he said.

Baker is not alone in this assertion, with American research-based international performance management company, Gallup, Inc., reporting that entrepreneurs in most countries from the United States, France and the United Kingdom to Japan and China believe it is more important to focus on weaknesses than strengths.

The authors of Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, maintain that fear of our own weaknesses seems to overshadow our confidence in our strengths. To use an analogy, if life is a game of cards and each of us has been dealt our hand of strengths and weaknesses, most of us assume that our weaknesses trump our strengths.

Baker says building up your weaknesses is going to make you, at best, mediocre or average in those areas and that is not enough differentiation for a business, or of enough value to a customer.

There is more to be gained by increasing one of your strengths by ten per cent than improving a weakness to the same degree.

I'm not saying don't fix what's wrong because that is something that has to be done, but see it more as necessary maintenance. Delegate or outsource in areas of weakness, but don't waste time on them as part of your growth strategy.

Baker said that working on your strengths is energising, while working on weaknesses tends to be demoralising and tiring.

The answer is simple enough. Do a workshop with your business planner and make a SWOT analysis a part of that exercise. List your weaknesses and if it is something that poses a threat to your business, deal with it under threats'. Then list your strengths and start looking for ways to bulk up in those areas.

Baker offers the following tips for assessing your strengths:

Survey your customers. Ask them what they really like, or what really impresses them about your business. Ask your staff what they think the business excels at doing. It is likely that your staff will have had previous exposure to similar businesses, and will be in a good position to offer an opinion. Consider your competitors. What do you do better than them? Discard a perceived strength' if your competitors are equal to the task.

The best thing about focusing on your strengths is that is lifts morale and energises everybody. It puts the business in a positive place, Baker said.