Mistakes are an inev­it­able part of own­ing and oper­at­ing a small busi­ness. Even the worlds best entre­pren­eurs make them, it’s a part of being human. It’s not mis­takes that kill a busi­ness, it’s fail­ing to learn from them.

Though there are cer­tainly many mis­takes that a small busi­ness owner can make, I will now out­line seven of the most com­mon. Should you find your­self guilty of one or more, it’s import­ant to take stock and make a change.

Being a Weak Leader

Your com­pan­ies suc­cess is based largely upon your abil­ity to be an effect­ive leader. An effect­ive leader is some­body who is strong enough to do what’s neces­sary to move his busi­ness in the right dir­ec­tion. Some­times this can mean tak­ing risks, other times, it can mean mak­ing dif­fi­cult decisions. What’s import­ant is that your brave enough to do what’s necessary.

Becom­ing a Workaholic

When you neg­lect your per­sonal life in favour of your busi­ness, both end up suf­fer­ing. Long hours are one thing but spend­ing your entire life in the office is some­thing else entirely. Your busi­ness needs an owner who is both healthy and happy. Spend­ing every spare minute work­ing is not how you achieve either. If you can strike a bal­ance between your per­sonal life and your busi­ness, you are likely to find that both bene­fit as a result.

Hav­ing Unreal­istic Expectations

Ambi­tion is some­thing no entre­pren­eur can live without but many busi­ness own­ers have unreal­istic expect­a­tions regard­ing their busi­nesses growth. Such expect­a­tions can not only wreak havoc with your emo­tions, when talked about, they can wreak havoc with your cred­ib­il­ity. When think­ing about the future, set achiev­able, meas­ur­able goals. Slow and steady growth is what all busi­ness own­ers should be striv­ing for.

Unne­ces­sary Price Slashing

When demand for a product or ser­vice is low, the urge is always there to start slash­ing prices. Though there are times when doing so can make sense, many busi­ness own­ers get the scis­sors out without think­ing things through. Lower prices don’t always lead to an increase in demand. And in many cases, lower prices do lead to both lower salar­ies and com­pany instability.

Blind Mar­ket­ing Strategies

One of the most import­ant ingredi­ents of long term busi­ness suc­cess is a clear mar­ket­ing strategy. You can’t just throw money at the prob­lem and expect cus­tom­ers to some­how hear about your product or ser­vice. You should have a clear under­stand­ing of both the demo­graph­ics that you are tar­get­ing and the exact mes­sage that you’re try­ing to send them.

Fail­ing to Delegate

One of the most com­mon mis­takes made by small busi­ness own­ers is try­ing to do everything them­selves. Fail­ing to del­eg­ate can not only lead to you becom­ing over­worked, it’s simply not an effi­cient way to run a com­pany. If you’re try­ing to do everybody’s job for them, why are you pay­ing their salar­ies? The key to effect­ive del­eg­a­tion is to believe in your employ­ees abil­it­ies to do their jobs.

Under­es­tim­at­ing the Import­ance of a Fin­an­cial Cushion

Finally, the most dan­ger­ous mis­take that you can make as a small busi­ness owner is to take risks with your com­pan­ies cash flow. Now more than ever, a small fin­an­cial cush­ion is abso­lutely essen­tial to weather the inev­it­able storms. The busi­ness world is littered with com­pan­ies that had to shut their doors because they ran out of money. Don’t allow your busi­ness to become one of them.

Attached Images:

• License: Cre­at­ive Com­mons image source
• License: Cre­at­ive Com­mons image source
• License: Cre­at­ive Com­mons image source

Richard Stone is a retired com­mer­cial law­yer. He offers advice on vari­ous legal mat­ters on his blog. He has been a part of the stein­pag min­ing law­yers asso­ci­ation for the past few years.

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