The Seven Deadly Business Mistakes?
by Linda Laforge-Koebel, L.A. Designs

If business isn't going too well you must ask yourself if you are guilty of making one the Seven Deadly Business Mistakes! If you haven't started your business yet, consider what follows - your new commandments.

1. Are you caught in a Paradigm?
A paradigm is an example or model. Are you so inflexible that you can't escape your original business plan? Is this causing you to miss valuable opportunities? Keep your mind open and always seek new ideas that could potentially bring greater success your way. Just because doing business a specific way worked well for someone else, doesn't mean it's right for you. If the plan isn't working, change it until it does.
 
2. What? You don't even have a business plan? No marketing plan either?
Developing a business plan helps you to set realistic goals. Your marketing plan is an integral element of your plan. Without studying the many ways there are to promote your business effectively, with as many as 25 methods at little or no cost, you have already lost out on a handful of opportunities.
 
3. No Sales Plan either?
Can you gage your financial success without a Sales Plan? the answer is, nope. You need to realistically outline where and who sales will come from, payment methods and customer care. Some goals and incentive plans could bring you over the top. Besides, flying by the seat of your pants is only fun for a while - until you have biils to pay.
 
4. Do you know who your customer is?
If you think just about anybody would want to buy your widget, you're in for a surprise. Knowing your customer's buying patterns, needs and wants, and how to serve them is the key to your success. Data basing your current customer list, from birthdays to past purchases, is a great start.
 
5. Have you trained your employees well?
You need to both motivate and coach your staff well. Teach them how to treat your customers like royalty and how to properly introduce new products and services. If your employees are as committed as you are, sales will do well and you won't have to deal with customer complaints! You don't have a staff and/or you're working out of a home office? Just make sure your family answers the phone professionally. A simple "Yeah," from a tired teenager will turn people off, and may turn away a good opportunity.
 
6. Are you cashflow frenzied?
Also a part of your business plan, a realistic cashflow will foretell your financial success or failure. If it doesn't look good in the planning stage, it's probably not a good idea. Once you're in production, ignoring your finances can be just as deadly. Keep a keen eye on your cash and protect yourself from unnecessary crisis. That means budgeting your advertising dollars, along with everything else!
 
7. Even Sherlock Holmes had a Sidekick!
You can't do everything all of the time and if you do, you can't do it all well. If you can't hire a staff, building working alliances with other small businesses could be a feasible option. Hiring specialists to do your books or to help you develop your marketing products will help you focus on the elements of your business that you do best. Taking three days to do your books when you could be working with customers and bringing in a profit is not making good use of your time. Especially when a bookkeeper might only take an hour once a month! A personal business coach to bounce ideas off and get an objective opinion can also help you focus and improve your success.
 
As you see, the first way to advertise effectively is by having a business plan, which includes a marketing plan. You can then plan to track the success of your marketing campaigns. Keep an open mind. If one or two plans don't succeed as you had hoped, don't quit. Keep searching for the recipe that will work. Following your plan will help keep you from making one of the Seven Deadly Business Mistakes!
 

Linda Laforge-Koebel is an advertising professional dedicated to the business success of her clients. To see her portfolio and find more resources visit her at: http://www.CreativeEngineer.com or contact her by email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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