4 Small Business Mistakes To Avoid For Success, Freedom & Ease

I was sitting around a table with about 20 other women small business owners earlier this week and was deeply disturbed by some of the things I heard. I know that 90% of all startups fail overall and 50% of all small businesses fail within 5 years.

These are hard numbers to keep those of us with the entrepreneurial spirit motivated! And I want those women – ALL women who take the risk of making their business dream come true – succeed. We need more women sharing their passions with the world and serving our community.

So I’m veering away from my traditional blog topics on parenting, relationships, and mindfulness to talk small business success with you! A lot of women attracted to my work are small business owners, wantrepreneurs, or in entrepreneurial type careers like wealth management, real estate, and law, so hopefully you’ll find this helpful.

I’ve been mentored by several world-renowned business coaches over the last 5 years and since I read at least one book a week, I’m devouring business and leadership books on the regular, which means I’ve got something important to say about small business success!

Here are the top 4 small business mistakes I witnessed so you can avoid them in your enterprise!

Mistake #1  Forgetting That If You’re A Business Owner, You’re In The Business Of Sales And Marketing.

If you own a successful small business, your time will generally be broken down into the following:

·         30% Marketing

·         30% Sales

·         20% Your Service or Product

·         10% Customer Service

·         10% Leadership & Team

Most small business owners who can’t seem to achieve the freedom they desire or the financial rewards they are hoping for, spend the majority of their time on their service or product and not enough time and energy in marketing and sales. But here’s the thing, the list I wrote above is like a waterfall – and the water needs to start gushing down from the top.

If there’s no marketing, there can be no sales. If there are no sales, there can be no customers and no product or service delivered. If there are no customers, you won’t be able to pay a team to support you and you’ll be working 80 hours a week barely getting by.

As business owners, we have to remember that we are in the business of marketing and sales. If no one knows about our product or service, no one can benefit from it. We need to give these two areas significant energy, strategy, and resources in order to succeed.

Mistake #2  Thinking Social Media Posting Is A Marketing Strategy.

This leads to the second mistake that I have seen sink hundreds of small businesses, including ones I’ve been personally involved with. This mistake is thinking that posting on social media is a marketing strategy.

Sure, you might get some small wins posting on social media when your business first starts out. Family and friends that follow you may give your product or service a try… but then what? What happens after you’ve tapped your immediate contacts? Nothing… unless you have a marketing plan.

Facebook and Instagram only show your posts to those that already follow you and comment on your posts (like Mom, Dad, and Cousin Jenni). That’s why these platforms offer lucrative paid ads if you want to expand out to others in a highly targeted manner. Yes, you should post some regular content on your business pages so potential customers (who have found you through your real marketing strategy) can get to know you better. But as a small business owner, you need to spend most of your time on revenue generating marketing, not nice-to-have, this-looks-pretty-and-eats-up-lots-of-my-time social media posting.

Mistake #3  Not Hiring Soon Enough Or Hiring The Wrong People.

Most small business owners are overwhelmed, working 60 to 80+ hour weeks. The freedom they dreamt of when starting their business is not a reality, and doesn’t seem like will become a realty any time soon.

That’s because many new small business owners are afraid of, or don’t know how to, delegate. We know from the Pareto Principal that roughly 80% of our results come from 20% of our actions. As business owners, we need to be crystal clear on what 20% of the work we do brings in the greatest results, is an area of expertise we enjoy, and can be done by only ourselves. All of the rest we need to delegate or delete so we can focus on income generation and our expertise.

One of my success mentors had me calculate my current hourly rate (as well as my desired hourly rate) and then compare the work I was doing against that hourly rate. Was answering emails, uploading blog posts and content to our social software, sending client gifts, and reconciling my books within my pay grade? No! Is cleaning my toilet, getting groceries, and doing laundry within my pay grade? No! By giving these tasks to someone else, even if for just 3 to 4 hours per week, I can free up more time for income generation (and maybe even a massage from time to time).

We also need to look at hiring as an opportunity to fill in for our weaknesses. Would I hire another coach or writer right now? No, because those are my vital functions, my specialty, the unique way that I (and only myself) can contribute to the success of my business. So if we aren’t looking at hiring to cover tasks below our pay grade to open up time for income generating activities, then we need to look at hiring to fill in for our weaknesses.

I can make an average sales page for my coaching services, but I’ve hired someone else to do it that can make an excellent one (and free up 8 hours in my week at the same time). I could reconcile my own QuickBooks or prepare my own taxes, but I know time is money and I want experts handling those things so my finances and taxes are all in order.

In today’s virtual economy you can hire a freelance or contracted expert on absolutely any topic from sites like upwork.com, fiverr.com, even care.com in just a matter of days. If you aren’t yet in a place financially to hire, then focus on the important work of marketing and sales (while blowing your customers’ minds with your amazing-ness) to generate revenue that can most quickly get you to a place of hiring so you can scale your business, serve more people, and build your dream life.

Mistake #4  Not Recognizing That The Same Thing That’s Holding You Back In Other Areas Of Your Life Is Also Holding You Back In Your Business.

As an entrepreneur, you bring all of yourself to your business – your heart, your soul, your limiting beliefs and negative habits. If you haven’t uncovered those unconscious limiting beliefs and released them, they will show up and block the success of your business.  If you haven’t broken the conditioned patterns that kept you safe in childhood but do not serve you as an adult, they will disrupt your business (just like they’ll interfere with the success of your relationships, health, finances, friendships, and parenting).

“Wherever you go, there you are,” as the famous Buddhist saying goes. Which is why, in all the business coaching programs and masterminds I’ve taken part in over the years, about 50% of our trainings have been on mindset and healing these aspects of ourselves so we can stand powerfully in our strength with the capacity to lead our businesses to success.

THIS personal transformation work is my coaching area of expertise, in case you didn’t know. If you’re ready to up-level your entire life, including your business, book an exploratory breakthrough call with me HERE to discuss ways I can support you.

Was this helpful? Any other business challenges you want me to write about? Reply back to this email and let me know!

Cheers to your success! 🥳

Lots of love, your coach,

💖Sara

P.S. It’s my birthday today! The greatest gift I could receive is YOU standing in your power and consciousness! Commit today to wake up, be present, tune into your kids and their needs, and live this one precious life you have on purpose. I love you!