Avoid These Seven Small Business Mistakes to Avoid Going Out of Business.
According to the Small Business Association (SBA) thirty percent of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open. They blame small business mistakes.
Fifty percent fail during the first five years.
And sixty six percent during the first ten years.
I want you to be part of the businesses that succeed statistic and it’s important to be able to recognize the areas in your business that cause problems and why businesses fail.
By recognizing where your business needs help, you are better able to focus your attention in the proper places.
Here are seven areas where businesses fall short. Do a check and make sure you have these areas covered.
- No business plan
If you read this blog business blog you know I’ve said it many times, your business plan outlines where you are taking your business and your strategy.
It includes many important items like defining your business niche and target market, your marketing plan, financial projections, staffing, investments, as well as the benefits and features of your products and services.
Referring back to your vision for your business, it’s your business plan that provides the road map to move you from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.
If you don’t have a business plan to follow, your chances of achieving success are greatly diminished.
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Plans have a way of becoming reality. Craft your plan carefully and use it to guide your progress forward. - No vision
Successful businesses have a clear vision or picture of their business purpose and mission.
Your vision serves as target to hit to help you aim for where you want to in the future.
Your business plan serves as the mechanism that will help you to bridge the gap.
When you don’t have a clear vision as to why you’re in business or where you intend to take your business, it’s like taking a road trip without a map.
When you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll waste a lot of time, money, and energy trying to find the right road leading to your destination.
A well-defined vision will help you stay focused and on track. - No Niche
One of the most common reasons for business failure stems from having a poorly defined niche.
A niche refers to a target market or to an area of specialization.
When businesses fail to target a specific group of consumers, they risk being attractive to no one.
Perhaps it has its underpinnings in the saying, “You can’t please everyone.”
The more narrowly you market your business, the better your chances of generating new business.
Market yourself as an expert in a specialty, while showcasing yourself to a narrow market that you can most benefit. - No action
Taking action is the foundation of progress.
Without it you will have no clients and ultimately no business.
Sometimes Entrepreneurs get caught up in process so that they are unable to make decisions.
Other times they suffer from being perfectionists and don’t implement ideas because they don’t think they are good enough.
Anything that prevents you from moving forward will lead you down the path to failure.
Until decisions are made, flow is stopped and that usually means your business is blocked as well.
Until you put your products or services out there, you’re never going to make sales.
It’s better to take some action, risking an outcome you might not desire, than to stop and stagnate.
Don’t let great get in the way of good. - No commitment to learning
There is no place for complacency when it comes to being an entrepreneur.
Successful businesses search constantly for new and better ways to get clients as well as to serve the ones they already have.
They are aware of the latest trends and ideas so they can create products and services which best serve the changing needs of their target market.
They learn about and implement processes that increase the effectiveness of their day-to-day operations.
By committing yourself to learning and as importantly, implementing what you learn, you’re committing yourself to success in all parts of your business. - No ways of monitoring progress
You can’t manage what you cannot monitor or measure.
Every business needs to identify its key success factors, or key performing indicators (KPI’s).
It’s a small business mistake that is easy to fix.
It can be the number of products sold, the number of service hours provided, the number of signups generated from an email campaign, or even the perception of your business in the local community.
The only way you can improve your business and attain the success you desire, is by measuring the results of your actions.
You’ll be able to identify what is working and also where the shortfalls exist.
You can use any number of methods including internal operating checklists, customer surveys, and even peer reviews – feedback from your alliance partners or competitors.
This valuable feedback will be extremely useful in realigning your business efforts in the direction that maximizes success. - Not willing to ask for the sale
Without sales, you won’t be in business.
No matter how skillful you are with running the day-to-day business operations, if you don’t sell your products or services, you won’t need to worry about running a business for long.
All of the marketing efforts in the world won’t create customers who are beating down your door to buy from you.
Your marketing effort must extend beyond the regularly scheduled activities on your marketing calendar.
Being confident in what you are selling, being skillful in conveying benefits and features, and managing objections are key to making sales.
The most important action to take, however, is simply to ask for the sale.
Keep an eye on these seven areas when growing your business and address them as soon as you think you have a deficiency . I don’t want you to make any of these small business mistakes.
I’m rooting for your success! ＼（＾ ͜ ＾）／
Brandon
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Makes a Business More Likely to Succeed
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