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Top Ten Mistakes Made In The First Few Years of Business
By: Catherine Franz
By Business Coach, Catherine Franz
Consultants, coaches, accountants, engineers, and other
solopreneurs starting a service business, make common
mistakes that cost them to be ineffective with their
resources. In turn, these mistakes bring on a slow,
frustrating success or even force them to remove their
shingle because they run out of resources, normally money.
You would think with all the training and knowledge now
available that these individuals would be making fewer
mistakes. Actually, 2004 had a large increase in business
failures due to selling a service before they cultivated
their service.
You will want to see if any of these items are biting into
your assets. You will want to be honest here:
1. You don't have all the knowledge needed to bring your
business to fruition, yet you think you do. Alternatively,
you could be missing the skills. Whatever you are missing,
you are going to need the finances to close the holes --
either through a self-education process or using outside
support.
2. You aren't honest with yourself on how much effort it
needs to cultivate your ideas and projects. Do you start a
project and give up after you work on it, and work on it,
and lose momentum or energy to complete it? If you do this
frequently, you want to evaluate your ego’s presence.
3. Do you buy into societies "quick get" philosophy? Are
you always buying the next best answer to slice bread? Stop
chasing possibilities and get down to working your
processes.
4. You are in it for the wrong reasons. You have an eye on
the prize and don't want to work the journey. If you want
to make exceptional money, it’s going to take two or three
times the time you estimated. Is your eye on the
possibilities or on the work? There is a time for both, do
you know when its time, and when it’s not?
5. Do you stop too soon? Understand that it takes more
than one or two tries. You need to make small adaptations
and keep working it. Do you point the finger at the
marketplace? This doesn't work; the finger is on your
processes, your systems.
6. You want to do it alone or you feel alone on your
journey, and you operate that way. Don't ask for help from
the wrong people. You are setting up your request for
failure. Ask for assistance from people who are capable of
giving it to you, people who are unattached to the outcome.
7. You are either under funded physically, mentally, or
financially. You can run a service business with almost no
money, yet you will need to make up for it in time. Your
time will be the money exchange.
8. You spend more than you make no matter how much money
your business earns. Do you have a tendency to buy more
things because you are making more money? You are
sabotaging your own success. Cushions are more important
than new things.
9. You keep looking for the next piece of information for
the answer, yet you still haven't used the other information
accumulated. Stop accumulating. Start integrating what you
have into your processes or systems, and then look for new
parts to add.
10. You harbor a hidden shadow that if you do sell your
services, and it goes well, you will really have to get down
and give the service. This is a fear of success; it is
usually hidden very well.
If you even suspect that you fall into one of these, your
truthfulness and acknowledgment will determine your future
success; you will want to find some support to work through
it quickly. These mistakes cost people their business
everyday. Even if one is ten percent correct, find what
that ten percent is, acknowledge it, find a consultant or
coach and solve it. Don't drag it through another year with
the similar results.
Make a choice, be honest, and find a way to change it for
the last time. Afterwards, lift up your glass in a toast.
You deserve it.
About the Author
Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specializes in writing,
marketing and product development. Newsletters and
additional articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com
blog: http://abundance.blogs.com
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