The 10 Biggest Mistakes Owners Make In Their Business

Of all the mistakes many business owners make, here are our top 10 reasons why many businesses are not as successful as they should be in their business ventures.

Essential Tip #1 – Your Finances

The #1 reason why many businesses go bust has got to be due to poor financial management.

If your finances go pear shaped you don’t have a business and could land you in serious trouble.

Obviously this subject is vast and you will need to get professional advice but are a couple of pointers…

Watch your expenses and always remember you are in business to make money … Profit is not a dirty word.

Always be mindful of your cash flow (which is the amount of usable money you can pay your bills with)

Take the time to learn what your figures are telling you; your p+l, balance sheets etc

Learn about the available pricing methods and how you should Price for Profit

Place value at the heart of your business not price

Keep your profit guide we sent you a few days ago close to your heart and regularly re-read it

 

Essential Tip #2 – Your Advertising Focus

When looking at ways to grow your business, focus on one or two things and focus on doing those one or two things really well.

There are constantly new things to try, and with so many different things to try and shiny new object syndrome rearing its ugly head, it is so easy to try 100’s of different ways to grow your business but do none of them very well.

This makes your business look sloppy and half baked.

Instead, guide people towards just one or two of your best promotional outlets and impress them with your abilities to do those elements really well. If you don’t know which methods to try, always remember the 3M method for marketing.

3m is the market message media formula for success …  you have to know who your market is, you have to know what message they want to hear from you and what their pain point is, and you have to know in which media you can reach your target market with your message of value. 

 

Essential Tip #3 – Your USP

Develop your USP – this stands for unique selling proposition, but I actually prefer what our American friends call it … your “Unique VALUE Proposition” because “unique value proposition” puts the biggest element of your business, VALUE, at the very heart of your business.

So, you need to know why prospects should choose you as opposed to all the other alternatives, including the option of doing nothing at all. So, what makes you different from all the other businesses out there who do what you do?

 

Essential Tip #4 – Education

Listening to podcasts and doing FREE courses like this is a great start towards your business success, but to be very successful you will need to invest some time and funding into your business education.

On top of that, you will need to put time aside every single day to read books on selling, sales and marketing, copy writing, branding, project management and much much more. Of course, if you decide to invest in your education with The Business Super Heroes then you will need to find time to complete and implement all the massive profit boosting hints and tips we send you in our emails, books and courses.

Be in no doubt education is essential to your future growth.

 

Essential Tip #5 – Keep Going

History is littered with business owners who have given up when things got hard and sold their shares for peanuts – only for that company to go on to be worth billions. Of course you will need to take the relevant financial advice to ensure it is worth keeping going with a business that seems to be going nowhere, but stubbornness can pay dividends.

There will be times when the phone is red hot, and times when you have to call your own contact number to make sure it is still connected. That’s business life. Just keep going, even when things get a little tough … just fight through the hard times and save through the good times.

 

Essential Tip #6 – Make Time to Grow Your Business

At the Business Super Heroes we constantly press home the need for what we call Power Focus Sessions – these are 90 minutes every single day of totally laser focused concentration on your business. During this time don’t check emails, do invoices, or any of the normal day to day running of the business.

No … during this time you focus purely on growing your business and keeping your customers happy. You can also use this time to develop new ideas or initiatives. What is essential is that you put aside time every single day and use it purely to grow your business.

Everything you see here and, if you become a member, the tons of incredible profit boosting information available just for our members has all been created in my daily 90 minute focus sessions.

 

Essential Tip #7 – Get Organised

Get organised from the start – your database can be your best friend or worst enemy. If you start and run your database properly from the start of your business you will start well. Use your database to keep track of your customers and their profiles, how much they pay, how good a customer they are etc etc.

Make sure you keep in regular contact with your best customers and send them newsletters, free promotional products etc

Also, ensure you turn up on time with the right products and the right equipment to do the job that is required. Obviously if you employ people you need to put systems in place to ensure they have everything they need to ensure the customer gets tip top quality service.

 

Essential Tip #8 – Develop Your Systems and Automation

As soon as you can develop systems to help you keep on track. Look how well McDonalds are run, especially when you consider that the majority of the staff there are youngsters!

Systems are simply just a series of routines that will help you create order in your business. Say for example a prospect asks you to quote, your system could be: get out the customer order pad, complete name and address details and contact number, ask where they heard about you, check to make sure they are not allergic to any products or smells etc etc.

Make sure you work on creating a system that gets exactly the results you want every time, then write it down and follow it to continue getting those same exact perfect results every time. Then if you think of something else you can do for the customer or to make things run better, then change the system, print off the new system and use that. Systems help ensure a consistency of service that is unbeatable.

 

Essential Tip #9 – Remember AIDA

As we spoke about a couple of days ago, in everything you do remember AIDA, which is the basics of marketing your business. It stands for Attention Interest Desire Action and all your advertising must follow AIDA, in order, to be successful.

So, you must get the prospects attention first, then get their interest, then create a real burning desire for your services, then you have to get them to take some sort of action.

Also, in all your advertising don’t forget that people don’t care about you, so always remember to tell your prospects how you can help them, not about how great you are as a business.

 

Essential Tip #10 – Relationship Selling

Relationship selling is the way to sell in today’s market place. Relationship selling is all about putting the customer first, doing the right thing by the customer and ensuring they get the right product for them.

Sounds incredible that it used to be any other way (and some businesses do still undertake  poor selling techniques for short term gain) but putting your customer first is the best way to ensure you get thrilled customers who love you, refer you and come back to you, time and again.

 

Essential Tip #11 – Do More Than Expected (see what we did there?)

Whether it is a bunch of flowers after the job, a hand written letter to thank the customer for their referral or a written newsletter to your customers each month, make sure you are remembered for being remarkable. 

With so much competition in almost every trade or profession, just remember that customer satisfaction is NOT enough these days to ensure repeat business and tons of totally scrummy referrals.

 

This is just a tiny taster of what is contained in the many courses, eBooks and CD’s we will send you as a full member of the Super Hero Academy. 

If you want to grow your business in a stable, measured way (and not just fill your sales pipeline with rubbish customers who don’t want to pay you anything) then the Business Super Heroes Academy could be for you.