Table of Contents
The fear of losing money and prestige is common among entrepreneurs. Going into business is taking a leap of faith and facing uncertainty, after all. But there are measures for improving your chances of succeeding. One thing you can do is to avoid the following harsh mistakes:
5 Really Harsh Mistakes for Good Businesses to Avoid
1. Not Doing Thorough Research
Some entrepreneurs think they got the perfect business idea. But many decide on an impulse and not based on logic.
Take, for example, choosing the location for your business. Should you choose a site based on the cheaper rent? There are various aspects to consider when selecting the most desirable business location. Failing to consider every factor could devastate revenues.
2. Not Hiring the Right People
The smart business owner focuses their time and energy on their area of expertise. And they hire qualified people who can handle other areas of the business.
A founding team is critical to the running and starting of your business. The lack of talent is the number one cause of enterprise collapse.
Consider the most famous, if not most successful, founding team in business history. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are the founders of Apple. The two worked together out of a garage in Silicon Valley.
Then, being the sales guy he is, Jobs got a contract to develop a version of Breakout. And Woz had the perfect programming solution. Both agreed to split the proceeds from the project 50-50. The project helped them get part of the money they needed to start Apple.
About a decade later, Woz finds out the contract was worth thousands. But Jobs gave him merely a few hundred dollars. Apple has been successful, and they have already made millions. But apart from the betrayal, Jobs and Woz had many misunderstandings while running Apple, forcing Woz to leave the company.
The story proves that even the best teams can break up over any issue. So, think about how to find the right people and reduce the chances of your business falling apart.
3. Not Tracking Your Revenue and Expenses
Chefs, artists, and creatives may be great at their craft. But they most likely are not good at tracking their income and expenses.
Tracking your business’s income and expenses gives you a good view of your finances. It shows you the amount you spend in a period and the items you buy. It can be your guide if you need to plan some cost-cutting.
You can’t determine whether your business is a success or not if you don’t keep an accurate revenue log. It would also be challenging to decide when to expand your business or which areas to improve.
4. Poor Marketing
A fundamental question in business goes, “Will the dogs eat the dog food?”
Will customers buy your product?
You already have the product. Some people have tried it and liked it. But the question is, how do you find more of these people? Or better yet, how do people find you?
You should have proper marketing strategy that is how you attract new customers. It also includes engaging and retaining customers by giving them something valuable.
5. Weak Cybersecurity
Organizations use Android phones, computers, and social media. The Internet and cloud technology are essential to doing business. There is no choice but to do the same, or you’ll miss opportunities.
But modern technology has both pros and cons. The drawback is that your systems are more prone to cybersecurity attacks. And businesses that fail to secure their system can lose money and customers’ trust.
Strong passwords are your company’s first defense against unauthorized access to your accounts which helps to keep your business data safely. But strong passwords must be at least twenty characters long. They must also contain numbers and special characters, which makes it hard for employees to remember such lengthy, complex passwords.
You can’t use the same password for all your accounts, either. Doing so makes you vulnerable to data breaches.
Luckily, there are better ways than to memorize passwords from various accounts. A tool called password manager generates and stores your passwords in an encrypted vault. It allows you to sign in to your accounts without hassle. You only have to memorize a master password to gain access to your password manager.
Password managers have autofill features. If you try to log in and the password manager does not autofill your credentials, you may be on a fake website. They keep your system secure by ensuring you do not log in to malicious websites.
Final Thoughts
You can deal with business uncertainty better if you manage to avoid these common mistakes. Develop a strategy early on, as planning lowers your risk of making mistakes.
And your plan must include:
- Doing research
- Hiring the right people
- Tracking revenue and expenses
- Having a good marketing strategy
- Ensuring your systems are secure
The harshest mistake you can make when running a successful business is neglecting these things. Your business will likely find it difficult to overcome challenges without these essentials.
