by Monika Beck | Featured Contributor
Most small businesses dream of becoming major corporations. The road to success is difficult to navigate, but there are shortcuts you can take to get you to your goal. The most important thing is to avoid making mistakes which will keep your business small.
Here are ten things that every small business with big ambitions needs to avoid.
1. Work Non-Stop
This might seem counter-intuitive, but working too much is a common cause of business failure. For example, owners of Palm Desert alarm companies might want to stay in the office day and night waiting for a sudden interest. They might want to spend all day installing alarm systems and all night dreaming up marketing strategies. This will only cause burnout. Try and get the work/life balance right from the start.
2. Tell People You Are Small
Big businesses start off by dreaming big. If you tell people you are running a small business, they won’t give you any sympathy. Instead, they’ll go to a bigger, bolder competitor. Why should they take the risk on an unproven reserve study consultant when there are so many established competitors to choose from?
3. Do Everything Yourself
Trying to cut costs by doing every job yourself is a guaranteed way to stay small. If you dream of one day commanding a huge workforce, start now! Trying to do everything spreads your energies too thin and results in a sloppy end product. Start by outsourcing the simple repetitive tasks.
4. Keep Prices Low
Offering your services at a low price might seem like a good way to get ahead of the competition. The truth is you’re signaling that you’re not good enough to charge more. Do you really think someone will want to hire the cheapest possible San Diego divorce attorney?
5. Delay Important Tasks
One of the toughest things about running is a small business is balancing urgent tasks and important but non-urgent ones. Making sure the important tasks get done is another reason to hire more staff!
6. Let Your Customers Do All Your Advertizing
While it’s true that word of mouth can be the best form of advertising, it takes a long time to build a reputation this way. If you’re relying solely on word of mouth, you might never get big enough to really benefit from it.
7. Have No Long-Term Objectives
All big businesses have big ideas for their future. If you don’t dare to dream, then you’re unlikely to ever reach the stars.
8. Have No Long-Term Plan
A serious strategy is what makes a big dream come true. Without serious future planning, your business is likely to stall.
9. Always Keep Both Eyes on the Bottom Line
The amount of money your business is making is an important indicator of what you have accomplished, but it tells you nothing about where the business is heading. If you worry solely about profits and neglect leads and business generation, your business will never grow.
10. Stick With What You Know
Every industry changes over time and most industries seem to be changing at an ever-faster pace. If you’re not willing to grow and adapt, your business will be left behind.
Savvy web designer with a twist – Monika Beck with Webene – San Diego, CA.
Monika BeckMonika Beck is passionate about website design, web programming, ecommerce, and building businesses. She is a serial entrepreneur and the cofounder of Success Harbor a website dedicated to help entrepreneurs succeed. Success Harbor interviews successful entrepreneurs and publishes topics relevant to business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Monika started Success Harbor with her cofounder in order to ease the life of entrepreneurs through original research, tips and unique content. Monika is also a web designer and cofounder of Webene, a website design and online marketing firm based in San Diego, CA. Webene specializes in mobile-friendly responsive websites built on the WordPress platform. Monika loves playing classical music on the piano.
