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10 mistakes - Why small businesses stay small.

Guest post by: Craig Jennings

Article Overview: Small businesses are doomed to perpetuial smallness by a series of mistakes. Eliminate the misatkes and youll find immediate growth.

10 mistakes - Why small businesses stay small.

10 mistakes small business owners make; or why most small businesses stay small.

If you were headed out to go fishing or sailing, before you left you'd want a chart to show where the rocks were, particularly the ones that lie just below the surface. In the world of small business, the rocks are (if you'll excuse the expression) often in our heads! Most small business owners learn by making mistakes, not just mistakes of execution, but mistakes of thinking. We are quick to learn from mistakes of execution. Mistakes of thinking are trickier, are very persistent and often far more expensive.

Below, 10 of the mental mistakes which keep small businesses small.

1. To stay small,work 24/7. My compliments on your effort, not on your planning. A business owner who works 24/7 will first achieve errors, then burnout, often bankruptcy. Working 24/7 is exciting for a while. A lot is happening, you feel creative, effective. But it's a great way to run your business and yourself right into the ground.

2. To stay small, be modest! If you manifest to others that you're small, new and inexpensive, you want them to pat you on the head and give you an assignment out of sympathy. Unfortunately, most will just ignore you. You dared to open a business. Now dare to play big, go for bigger customers.

3. To stay small, don't hire out! Failing to delegate is a critical headed-for-disaster mistake. You probably don't have to pay people much to do the things you're not good at, and they'll probably do them faster and better than you can. Not only that, it'll give you more time to do what you're good at.

4. To stay small, don't charge too much. You're playing safe, and, of course, starving the business for income. You can't grow if you don't earn. And you can't attract other people to you if you can't earn enough to support them as well as yourself. As you charge more, you'll be able to afford more. You always knew the egg came before the chicken.

5. To stay small, tackle the urgent tasks immediately, get around to the important ones later. It's easier to do urgent things first, put off important tasks until later. But you're putting off profit and opportunity. This is a major problem for small businesses, best addressed with a partner or a coach. Hint: Coaches are cheaper and, in many cases better. Warning: This article is written by a coach.

6. To stay small, wait for word of mouth to work. Many small businesses take pride in their word of mouth business. But you can't control it. If you don't take regular, structured, planned action to get new business, you'll just sit and watch the telephone. This is far from the "brave new world" you had in mind when you started. There is, however, a referral strategy which will allow you to generate referrals on a structured basis.

7. To stay small, avoid the "big vision" nonsense. We haven't defined our long term strategic objectives. We don't have a picture of what our business will be like in 5 years. Chances are it'll look pretty much the way it does now. Vision-building is difficult work, often procrastinated. Can be done in a weekend, preferably away from the office.

8. To stay small, no mission. We don't make tactical plans either. A thoughtful business owner makes long-range strategic plans for his business and then tactical plans for each situation. He plans his work, then works his plan.

9. To stay small, study your checkbook. Your checkbook balance is important. But it's a "Trailing Indicator." It tells you how things are after you can't do anything about it. There are "Leading Indicators" which will help you grow. They include: Sales calls per week; New clients as a percentage of total clients; Monthly bottom-line profits compared to last year; Monthly sales forecasts. These Leading Indicators will tell you how you're doing long before your checkbook will, when you're in a position to make a correction.

10. To stay small, avoid change at all costs. "Of all the words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.'" W. Shakespeare. In fact, you have both time, and yourself, right at this moment. If you don't take full advantage of both, what's the point in working for yourself? Where do you find the time? Surprisingly easy, it's been there all along. Most people avoid change. If you're willing, I can show you.

You don't need me to tell you that small business is tough business. In fact, while small businesses account for almost half of our Gross Domestic Product, and 6 million start up each year, 40% are gone in 1 year, 80% in four!

Ocean-going vessels entering harbor routinely engage a pilot. In business terms, that's a coach, someone who knows the reefs of action and reefs of mind, and deals with them both. The ship or boat remains under your control, but you may safeguard its value with some special expertise.

The coach is, of course, me, a 13-year business coach who's started 8 businesses in his life and works with small business owners day in and day out.

See if any of the above issues are active concerns of yours. For a free "strategy session" you can contact me without risk, or cost. Info on my Craig Jenningsbio page.

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