Gene Marks, writing for The Hartford, has posted a great list covering many of the common traps small-business owners fall into, especially when they first get started. Many of these observations are important even for veteran business owners, so let’s look at a few today.
Don’t Ignore Your Customers
As Marks explains, “any first-year business school student [will] tell you that their professor told them that it’s much, much more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to grow your revenues from existing ones.” Cultivating your existing relationships is key to ongoing success, and this applies to every industry, even ice cream stands. You can encourage repeat business with loyalty cards or other incentives. If your business workflow involves capturing contact information, don’t neglect your previous customers by forgetting to check in with them or to offer them new products and services. “Focus on your existing customers first and, believe me, the new ones will come.” Remember the importance of your business’s reputation, which you build first with your existing client base.
Don’t Take Your Employees for Granted
As the frontline of your business, these are the people with whom your customers will be interacting with, so you want to make sure your staff is filled with not only competent people, but also happy ones. Poorly trained, frustrated employees will not leave your customers with a good impression. Remember, “[y]our employees have lives. Really, they do. They have children. They have car troubles and sick parents and dental appointments.” Thus, you must have patience with them and offer “the best environment to accomplish” the work you need. That means offering competitive wages, investing in their training, and listening to their concerns.
Don’t Do Things You’re Not Good At
Focus is an important skill for any leader, who should recognize there are tasks better suited to others—not just because a good leader has to focus on the big picture and not get mired in the details, but also because a good leader knows he or she is “not an expert at everything. So, stop doing things that you don’t do very well and instead focus just on the things that you do best.” Marks continues, “hire experts to help you,” whether that’s for bookkeeping, maintenance, or anything else. After all, “it costs you more in time and lost opportunities to do everything yourself.”
Along those lines, you should also hire an outside party to help you evaluate everything from your employees’ sales and customer-service skills to the quality of your products and the effectiveness of your merchandising. Not only is doing this yourself near impossible, it’s also going to prevent you from focusing on your other obligations.
Consider reaching out to a mystery-shopping company like The Brandt Group. Not only can we develop a program to target the most important facets of your business, we can also aid you in training your people to improve everything from the work environment to how your existing-customer relationships are maintained. We offer on-site and over-the-phone mystery shopping, as well as training seminars. Reach out today and let’s make sure you avoid the common mistakes that befall most small-business owners.
