According to Small Business Administration, more than 50% small businesses fail within a year, and 95% in the next 5 years. While sometimes this happens due to things like the lack of adequate cash, new government policies or unexpected competition, more often than not, the main cause of this failure is much more common. In other words, it is something you have full control over, making it quite preventable, to begin with. With this in mind, here are eight common mistakes small business need to avoid in order to drastically improve their chance of survival in the business world.
Not Finding the Right Partner
Teaming up with someone else brings many benefits to a small company. First of all, it gives you someone to share both financial and administrative burden with. Second, you get a higher borrowing capacity, should the situation dictate it. Third, changing your legal structure becomes much easier in a case where circumstances unexpectedly change. Unfortunately, a lot of people make a mistake when choosing a partner. Instead of looking for someone who shares their vision, they team up with someone who only shares the same interest as them. Needless to say, these two are not necessarily the same thing.
Not Having a Website
Your first reaction to this mistake could be a slight disbelief, after all – is there any business without a website in 2017? Well, according to score.org, almost 49 percent of all small business fall under this category. Reasons behind this are numerous, from those who don’t believe in the ROI generated by a professionally made website, to those who believe they don’t need it due to their local character or the narrow industry. Nonetheless, they are all equally wrong.
Disregarding the Importance of Work Environment
In a world where a single bad day can ruin your entire company, there is no factor affecting your productivity which you can afford to disregard. For example, an inadequate office furniture can cause your employees to give it less than 100 percent, while a too crowded place may result in a world of confusion around the office.
Luckily, the first one is easily solved by finding a better supplier, while the latter one gets resolved with a bit of careful planning and some storage. This, however, is quite situational seeing how companies in Queensland should be oriented towards storage solutions Brisbane has to offer, while the situation might be vastly different in other regions.
Overestimating Your Personal Endurance
Make no mistake, even the mentally and physically strongest person has its limits and during the initial stages of running a business, it will all be on you. The amount of planning, micro-management, and outreach you will have to conduct on your own is not to be underestimated. This is why you shouldn’t underestimate your personal endurance. Overworking yourself can be extremely dangerous and can sometimes even directly lead to an end of your enterprise.
Ignoring Negative Feedback
It is true that the existence of the internet has made it easy for haters to anonymously slander everything they even slightly dislike. Still, not every negative comment or review will be mean-spirited. Keep in mind that while people flattering you may be good for your ego, those who complain are making the actual contribution to the overall structure of your business. Ignoring them, on the other hand, can turn out to be fatal for your business.
Not Setting Goals
Next major mistake small businesses tend to make is not setting goals in front of their business. Sure, some may say that the success of a business can be measured in things like profit or workload, but there’s definitely more to it. In order to check if your business is going in the right direction, you need to set the specific short-term goals you believe will eventually get you where you want to be.
Overspending
Once your business starts steamrolling you will feel absolutely invincible. This may cause you to start spending more than you can actually afford on things like better equipment, bigger office or even setting up a whole new department. Keep in mind, though, that this sudden success may be just a temporary fluke and such an investment may cost you dearly later on. This is why, you might want to go with temporary solutions instead, just until you can be 100 percent sure.
Planning Too Much
In the very end you need to keep in mind that while not planning enough is dangerous, so is planning too much. In any business, circumstances tend to change, so if you wait for too long you may miss the window of opportunity. Seeing as there aren’t many of those around, such a mistake could turn out to be quite fatal.
In Conclusion
Sure, there are numerous other errors that small businesses tend to make like blindly following advice, trying to be perfect or even trying to do it all on their own. Still, by just avoiding the abovementioned eight, you are bound to set your business off to a much better start than you would otherwise face.
