You're excited. You've just started your own business, and already you have customers. You can barely keep up with the orders, and every day you're feeling how rewarding it is to work for yourself. But then it gets hectic. Your orders are coming in faster than you can handle them, and before you know it, a customer has sent back some unfinished product or left a poor review. All of a sudden, you're feeling less like a badass entrepreneur than a scoundrel. If this sounds familiar, don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of business owners. The key is to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. If you don't learn to avoid these eleven mistakes, it could be the end of your business in 2021.
Mistake #1: Relying on the "it" factor:
So, you go to app developers and ask for a business app. They ask what kind of business you have, and you reply with something like, "I'm a small business." App developers should know they can't develop an app for just any old small business. Instead, they will ask things like: Who are your customers? What is your unique value proposition? Where do you sell? Those are all great questions. It should be a red flag if someone says, "I'm a small business," and doesn't have answers for these types of questions.
Mistake #2: Staying up-to-date – This is especially important if you're running an ecommerce site. To ensure that you have the best chance of success, make sure that you're using the latest SEO techniques and using all the latest online marketing tools available.To succeed in the year ahead, small businesses (and big ones as well) will need to make sure they're staying up-to-date in several different industries. Below we've highlighted five different ways that you can make sure you're not making any small business mistakes in the year ahead:
1. Stay up-to-date with SEO
2. Stay up-to-date with marketing platforms
3. Stay up-to-date with social media
4. Stay up-to-date with business practices
5. Stay up-to-date with your customers
Not only will this help your business grow in the short term, but it will also help it remain relevant in a world that is constantly changing.
Mistake #3 Not Filing Taxes - Don't know how to file taxes? The biggest mistake you can make in your small business is forgetting to file taxes. Did you know that by not filing your taxes, you could lose out on money that is owed to you? According to a survey conducted in 2013, 78% of small businesses that didn't file their taxes said they never received a bill. So, here's what you need to do: Find a quality tax professional to file business taxes online right here!
Mistake #4: Hiring Before You're Ready
What does that mean?
There are many reasons why you might want to hire before you're ready. It's what we did when we brought on our first employee. We were both in school, and it was hard to find the time to manage all of our new business and marketing ideas as they came to us. So when we found someone who seemed like a good match for the job, we had her do a bunch of work for us to see if she would stick around. It seemed like the next logical step at the time.
While it's true that sometimes we end up going forward with a bad match, we rarely hire someone who sabotages us or takes advantage out of pure malice. More often than not, we don't have the right expectations about how hard employees work or how much work they can handle.
Mistake #5: Doing the Bare Minimum. I hate to break it to you, but your customers are not dumb. They see through the half-assed efforts and see right through it. When you try to do the bare minimum, you're showing you don't care about your customers. The key to staying ahead is doing the extra effort. In 2021, small businesses must stop doing the bare minimum. The key to staying ahead is to go above and beyond the standard fare. As the business owner, you have to keep pace with technology. I know this may be not easy, as you're probably working 12+ hours a day. Still, you have to find the time to take care of your customers and run your business.
Mistake #6 Building your Business on a Weak Foundation. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to interview hundreds of small business owners. Some of my favourite conversations are with entrepreneurs who have just started out. What I love about these conversations is that I can still see the 'fire in their eyes. They are excited about the possibilities of launching a new business and the endless ways they can impact the lives of others. "I just need to get this idea off the ground so I can make it work." Of course, I want to help them succeed but typically, what I see is already a failure in the making. Entrepreneurs like this often don't have a clear idea as to what it takes to run a successful business and how to tackle each component.
With such minimal planning, these passionate entrepreneurs are already overwhelmed, frustrated, and burned out by trying to wear so many hats at once in two years' time. Yet even more frightening is that they don't even realize how close they are to throwing in the towel.
Mistake # 7:Sweating the Small Stuff
You may have heard the old proverb, "The devil is in the details." But do not let that deter you from helping your business succeed. Some small things will make a big difference in your business success, and those small details may mean everything in your success. As a small business owner, every day, you face challenges, and the tasks ahead of you can seem overwhelming and sometimes even impossible to get done. You may feel that there is not enough time in the day to get everything done, but what you might not realize is that being overly critical of yourself and complaining about how busy you are is getting you into trouble.
Mistake # 8:Staging a Competition
Competitions should be part of your marketing strategy, but only if they make sense for your business and the business of your customers. The only way they work is if you have a low percentage of entrants completing the task you've set. For example, suppose you're running a competition with an entry fee to win a prize. In that case, you have to have enough interest in your product or service for people to enter, thus giving you a decent chance of selling enough products or services to cover the cost of the prize and operating costs. That might sound like common sense, but I see so many businesses standing out on their Facebook pages every year, asking people to enter a competition to win something that isn't and will never be for sale.
Mistake # 9:A Lack of vision.
The internet should be a place where all business is created equally, and with that in mind, it's important to anticipate and respond to how online visibility will evolve.
Conclusion: In conclusion, it is not enough to survive, you must also serve, as well as get the credit you deserve for the work you have done
Mistake # 10:Failure to recognize the importance of cash flow.
Cash flow is the difference between what a business earns and what it spends. It's not enough to earn $200,000 a month if you spend $205,000. Businesses that spend more than they earn go out of business. Use forecasts to determine how much money is needed to run your business each month, and then track it against how much is coming in. Getting enough cash in on time is critical to keeping your business alive, no matter what you do.
Mistake # 11:Not Testing Your Business Model - It's been proven countless times that having a business model is essential. Even if you don't know exactly how your business will make money, it's vital to know how it will do so.
Be sure to test this with people other than your friends and family.
Final words
Don't be a slave to your business. Entrepreneurs are often plagued with all sorts of issues. For example, you might not have the capital you want, or you might be doing all the work yourself, or you might be working too hard and not enjoying life. These are all common problems, but they don't have to be yours! There are ways to get more done and make more profit, which we'll talk about in future blogs.
