---

Guest post by: Janis Pettit Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

People are talking about a recession and that means fear is in the air. Well, if you want your small or solo business or practice to flourish anyway, make sure you’re not making any of these common mistakes.

Mistake #1 Focusing on only one or two profit strategies

If you only have sales and profit coming into your business from one source—say advertising for example—you’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table.

Mistake #2- Not understanding how and why people buy

You’ve got to understand why someone would choose you over your competitors so you can get their repeat business. And you need to know how they buy and when they buy. This is about research. Once you know what they want or need you can give it to them, not the opposite.

Mistake #3- Not thinking outside the box

Do you want to be like everyone else or do you want to be extraordinary? If you do, you better show people how you’re unique and fresh. Otherwise you won’t stand out in the over crowded, too-much-information marketplace.

Mistake #4 - Not developing and using a proven system for your marketing

You can throw money and time away on “shot in the dark marketing”, where you just try this and try that with no idea if it will work, or you can implement a proven system that will work time after time and give you a return on investment for every marketing dollar you spend. You need to spend your marketing dollars narrowly focusing on reaching your target market in as many ways as possible, and you need to measure the results and regularly eliminate what doesn’t work.

Mistake #5 - Not following a long-term business building strategy

• What do you want your business to look like 2 years from now? Go ahead and picture it.
• How many paying clients would you like to have?
• How many hours would you be working?
• How much money would you like to be making?
• How much help (outsourced or employees) would you have?
• How much free time would you like to have?

Once you have this wonderful picture in your head, it’s time to build a strategy to get there as quickly as possible. Otherwise you’ll end up like many self employed people—pretty much in the same place 2 years from now that you are today—usually selling time for money with no passive income stream.

If you’re making any of these mistakes, don’t feel bad. There are many others in the same boat. But now you have the knowledge to avoid them in the future and really move your business in the right direction.

Related Articles

  Dow Nasdaq U.S.Stocks Technical Analysis
  A Tip About Paint
  Build Your Salespeople’s Strengths And Use Them As Launch Pads For Better Sales Success
  Lesson #1: “If you get knocked down, get back up again”
  Why Charging a Flat Fee Can FlatLine Your Home Staging Business
  How to work out a flat rate or APR on your loan using a rate per thousand
  Lesson #4: Mistakes are a Must on the Road to Success
  Why You Still Need Attorney Billing Software If You Use A Flat-Fee Structure
  The 5 Top Power questions to ask your customer
  Business Teleconferencing Networking The Up and Coming Business Trend
  5 sales mistakes to avoid - and how to avoid them
  Selling on eBay: How to Help Local Business Sell Their Products on eBay
  Discipline
  Sales Team Transformation thru Coaching
  The Mistakes to Often Made in Sales
  Four Words Can Make You a Millionaire
  10 mistakes - Why small businesses stay small.
  Sales Force Alignment with Market Strategies
  Tips For Internet Marketing Affiliate Programs
  What are the elements of a good sales letter?

Related Forum Posts

New Small Business Topic
My entry
Re: Quick survey about sales training
Happy Worker as of Dec 31 2007
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Making a difference – Business Coaching with EFT

What Is A Solo Entrepreneur?

Investor Presentations: The How To's of Success

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.