Small businesses are fabulous, but let’s face it, everyone does dumb stuff sometimes.
Here are 7 mistakes that you can’t afford to make, especially now. And just for fun, you also get a post about the dumb mistakes big companies make, too.
7 Dumb Things Small Businesses Do
#1: Deciding You’re “Just Not Good” at Marketing
“I have the best handknitted dog sweaters/organic tattoo parlor/gourmet hair products in the city. I’m getting some clients here and there, but you know, I’m just not good at marketing . . . ”
#2: Going Without a Business Plan
“Ugh, crap, business plan. Can’t I just stab my eye with a fork and we’ll call it good?”
#3: Getting Upside-Down
He’s fired everyone and moved back to his basement. If he works incredibly hard, he might someday sell the business and come close to breaking even.
#4: Thinking It’s About You
His prospects and customers were just incredibly inconvenient to his vision of what the company ought to be.
#5: The Worst Number
If there’s an important “one” in your business, you don’t have a business. You have a project that may or may not continue to make money.
#6: Ingratitude
Even in the midst of all this financial panic and freefall, there is a nice big pot of delicious money sitting on the table for you.
#7: Following the Herd
Monkey see, monkey do. But humans are a lot better at that game than monkeys are.
And your special bonus post:
7 Things Big Dumb Companies Do That You Can’t Afford (Especially Now).
Scale is the enemy of mystery. It’s the enemy of creativity. Scale needs robust, unchanging processes or it falls to pieces.
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Agreed. . . Especially numbers four and seven, both have to do with losing site of the prize, the client. I had this EXACT convo with a customer the other day who tends to copy the “people who’ve been doing it longest” in their area and focusing to much on their preferences with branding, picking “cute” over professional.
Can make you want to play with a live grenade as a consultant.
Anyway, great article.
#4 is, sadly, all too true.
My first business was a restaurant. We started rather well.
In fact we were fully booked for the first couple of months.
Trouble started on our 3rd month when the chef (a partner himself) refused to adjust portions for kids or to even come up with a children’s menu (we were supposedly a family-oriented restaurant) as per customers’ requests. Complaints about the food were rebuffed with ” but THAT’s how the food’s supposed to be”. Late customers who came in 15 minutes prior to closing were refused service citing “it’s closing time”. A VERY loyal customer was refused a simple bloody salad because “the kitchen’s closed” even though the chef and staff “et al” were just clearing up ( we had an open kitchen so they were in plain view). All of that and lots more.
In short, we treated our customers as an inconvenience, as obstacles really, to the real business of running a restaurant (which everyone knows is the art of peeling potatoes and cutting fish PRECISELY so). We were rewarded with a dwindling customer base, mounting costs, and a failing business.
DO NOT make the same mistakes we did. Treat your customers well.
I am most attracted by numbers four and seven, they both have to do with losing site of the prize, well all the points are even captivating.
Wow, Sonia. Thank you! I really mean it. You’ve stimulated a real shift in my thinking because you’ve really made me realize that the herd mentality that I previously detested is actually the easiest marketing tool there ever was. You’re such a brilliant writer. So clear. Perfect. Thanks again.
Hey Sonia
You have rightly hit the bull’s eye. Great post!.
Great post Sonia.
This helps to clear the head in a very tough economic environment. My wife and I sell pre-packaged food. It’s done well for the last 18 months but we have had a lull since the holidays.
Time to think about our customers and why they have slowed their purchases? I think so!