Thursday, June 15, 2006
The Biggest Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make
During the past 15 years I've worked with more than 2,000 entrepreneurs of which 90% are still in business. That is the opposite of the national average. There are several things that make or break the potential success of a small business. The number one cause of failure according to the SBA is a company’s inability to change. Unless you have more than enough business, more than enough time, and more than enough money, you need to change what you’re doing. So how do you change? Stop and look at what your competition is doing. Investigate what others are doing in your industry 50 to 100 miles away when they’re successful. Interview them to find out what is working.
Another huge mistake entrepreneurs make is spending too much time working in their business and not on their business. I know you’ve heard this many times before, but in reality today’s market demands that you spend no less than 50% of your time marketing just to keep ahead of the curve. Sometimes that will mean that you have to start outsourcing more of the details that are eating up your valuable time.
I often have my new clients tell me that when a prospect tells them that they aren’t going to do business with them, they simply walk away. We have one of the few cultures where we omit the relationship building segment with our prospects. I assume that if they are ready today, they will be one day and I care enough to keep in touch with them. So take to time to go out there and build solid relationships with your prospects.
During the past 15 years I've worked with more than 2,000 entrepreneurs of which 90% are still in business. That is the opposite of the national average. There are several things that make or break the potential success of a small business. The number one cause of failure according to the SBA is a company’s inability to change. Unless you have more than enough business, more than enough time, and more than enough money, you need to change what you’re doing. So how do you change? Stop and look at what your competition is doing. Investigate what others are doing in your industry 50 to 100 miles away when they’re successful. Interview them to find out what is working.
Another huge mistake entrepreneurs make is spending too much time working in their business and not on their business. I know you’ve heard this many times before, but in reality today’s market demands that you spend no less than 50% of your time marketing just to keep ahead of the curve. Sometimes that will mean that you have to start outsourcing more of the details that are eating up your valuable time.
I often have my new clients tell me that when a prospect tells them that they aren’t going to do business with them, they simply walk away. We have one of the few cultures where we omit the relationship building segment with our prospects. I assume that if they are ready today, they will be one day and I care enough to keep in touch with them. So take to time to go out there and build solid relationships with your prospects.
