5 mistakes all entrepreneurs should avoid making

Written on 06 August, 2014 by Leonie Prendeville
Categories Small Business Tags small business

You know the feeling.  You’re busy; things are happening fast and you’re keeping up… just.

Are you profitable?  Who knows.

Are you relaxed?  Unlikely.

Are you connected to your family and friends?  Who?

Business can either consume you or give you a platform to really do what you feel is important – to really build something that is both profitable and exciting.

Here’s the problem. The more you stay in “busy mode” the more you lose sight of the strategies that restore order and effectiveness.

Here’s 5 mistakes entrepreneurs make that destroy your ability to command your own time and develop a balanced lifestyle (and still make the money).

Mistake One:  Being unable to quickly communicate why someone should buy from you. It’s as simple as this; if you could get people to buy with one less meeting and one less phone call, that would save your a ton of time. The key factor is communication and the time it takes for people to “get it” with what you offer. 

Mistake Two:  Lacking industry credibility and authority. This silent killer slows down everything you do, if people can’t figure out why you have credibility and authority they will take longer to return your calls, they’ll spend less, they’ll ask a lot more questions.

Mistake Three:  Pricing yourself to fail. If you’re too cheap or too expensive, you’ll be busy and unrewarded. If you don’t have the right payment terms, you’ll miss out on business. If you’ve not created packaged up offerings and stand alone products you’ll be busy but unrewarded. 

Mistake Four:  Lacking visibility to your target market. Chase, chase, chase – the only game that works until you have visibility. Raise your profile and suddenly people are chasing you. 

Mistake Five:  Thinking you need more money or more time to grow your business. You’re doing everything on your own and missing the fact that others want to invest their time, energy, effort or money into your growth. The very people who seem to be a distraction and the same people who seem to be a competitor could actually become partners who change the game for you. 

If you’re relating to this, the good news is that everything can shift from “busy mode” to “results mode” faster than you think. As soon as all your energy and effort gets traction, those wheels stop spinning and you’re away; but it requires a leap of faith on your behalf. You have to take a day of your time out from all the business and spend that time getting above the noise and focused on the bigger picture.

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