11 bad habits of small business owners

1. Putting too much emphasis on business name and logo – Customers want to know how you can help them, not how cool your business looks.  Definitely want a professional image, but don’t dwell on details too long.  Getting infatuated with details too early leads to disagreement, meetings, and delays. You get lost in things that don’t really matter. Refining can come later. Get it named, designed, posted and move on to the revenue generating tasks.
2. Working without a plan – work out a simple process on paper or on a mind mapping program.  It’s easy for me to get sidetracked with other readings or tasks, then realize there’s bigger things that need to be worked on.  Keep a written outline nearby to keep on track and organized.
3. Not knowing what differentiates them from the competitors – be prepared in knowing why people should buy from you.  Have something specific like “We offer in-home service” or ” We offer a money-back guarantee”.
4. Inconsistent marketing – good habit to always be putting service offerings in people’s minds.  When it comes to buying time, how fresh is your brand in their minds?  That backs up why sending out 1000 direct mailers sent over 10 months have a much better call rate than one massive mailing of 10,000.
5. Not knowing who their prospects are – you’ll kill yourself diluting your marketing efforts to everyone.  Know what type of person would use your business and target those methods to reach them.
6. Not knowing what problems prospects want solved – design your business based on what customers want, not what you think they want.  With the internet, blogs, comment sections, these days it’s much faster and easier to find this info than spending time & money arranging focus groups.
7. Not focusing on long term value of current customers – many businesses place the majority of focus in attracting new customers which costs more money.  Money has already been spent attracting current customers, which should take higher service priority since they’ve already established trust in you.  Communicate and service those guys- they’ll spread the word for you much faster and cheaper.  Friends trust friends feedback more than advertising and websites.
8. Getting into debt – starting out a business in debt along with nil to little revenue just increases the odds of business shutting down early.  Bootstrap and use free and cheap promoting techniques, do a lot of walking, door knocking, and flyer posting to gain your first few clients and get cash flowing in order to move up to more advanced marketing.
9. Trying to get rich overnight – you’re in it for the long haul.  It took many years for rich business owners to become overnight successes.
10. Not following a budget – have a plan for your money and prioritized places to spend it on purpose.  Have at least 6-8 months of expected monthly expenses saved up to get you through slow periods.
11. Working IN the business more than ON the business – have others do the daily tasks if you can.  A business owner’s job is to get people walking through the door and have staff take care of the rest.