Avoiding Common Entrepreneurial Mistakes

Every new business owner wants to be successful in their business adventure. Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs achieve such success.  Here is a list of common problems new business owners may encounter:

1.   The need to be brutally honest. Being brutally honest with yourself regarding business matters allows you to be constantly on guard to protect what you are trying to build.   Don’t hide behind excuses of why things are the way they are.  For example, you have a revolutionary product idea that is going to take the solar construction business by storm. You have vast industry knowledge along with 30 years of experience in the field. You know that once this product is available for sale you will have your hands full trying to meet the demand. Although you have great knowledge about your industry and the product you have created, you also know that you have zero knowledge about anything business office related.  Therefore, face your weaknesses and create a planned strategy by hiring a team to be a part of your business success. A successful business is not only proactive in serving its clients’ needs and delivering a quality product, but also to imperative company business matters.
2.    Running a successful business is not as glamorous as it sounds. There is a lot of work involved in running a successful business. Even if you have a fantastic product or service idea – that alone is not enough to make you successful. There are many other factors that together make your business a success. For example, if you do not have a solid marketing strategy to make your business known to the world, sales will be few and far between. In addition, if you do not have a professional accounting system, when those sales come in, how will you account for it? How will you provide financial reports if you need capital to fund for expansions or new developments? There is a lot of needed hard work in every area of business to make it a success. Depending on the business, you may need to gather all your resources in order to truly make it happen.
3.     Not being regularly informed of the financial state of your business. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach will most definitely end with enormous business problems, even failure. It is important to be up to date on all your business’ financial matters. Reports can be generated at any time, but usually the reports are done over a period of a month, quarter, or year. While it is important to know how much sales/revenue was generated, it is equally just as important to know how much liabilities your company holds, how many aged accounts receivables are on account, how many accounts payables are due, how much did we spend on product material, advertising/marketing, payroll, just to name a few important details. Just because the bank account balance has a positive dollar amount, does not mean that your financial business is not struggling.
4.    Not creating the customer satisfaction experience. You want your customers to love your product/service so that they will buy it. But to create a true customer satisfaction experience, you will want them to love your business in itself too. How? Maybe it is because you have exceptional customer service interactions that make them feel like family, or maybe it is your 100% satisfaction guarantee and lifetime full replacement. Maybe it is your community awareness and involvement to make the community a better place. Maybe it is your company’s stand against an injustice or mission of volunteering to help people who are homeless and hungry, or abused and neglected animals. The importance of customers loving your business as much as they do the product/service you provide, will take your customer from just loving your product to being a loyal customer.
5.    Building too much too fast. When first starting a business, many entrepreneurs have so many grand ideas that they want to offer and accomplish. Whether it is multiple products or a variety of services, sometimes as businesses grow, the variety can become overwhelming and trying to meet demand can cause a breakdown in the delivery of quality. It is better to start small with the most valuable products/services and then make the additions incrementally as each stage is mastered. For the growth to be truly successful, the process from creation to product delivery of a quality product needs to be seamless.

New business owners are going to make mistakes from time to time. But if you can avoid the above mistakes in your business, your chances of business success will greatly increase. FR8 Solutions is an exceptional compliment to any business.  Let our team of professionals be a working partner in your business’ success! Call us today to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your business needs.