Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail

Let’s Talk about the other “F-word”, FAILURE!

We all fail sometimes, that’s a fact of life. We fall on our face, get up, dust ourselves off and hopefully learn not to make the same mistake again. That’s not to say you must fail to learn life lessons, in fact, you can also learn through success.

Guess what’s so much better than failing and learning from your mistakes? Learning from other people’s failures and mistakes.

In working with small business owners I have seen owners who were successful and also worked with those that were not. Some did learn from their mistakes, and some have made such huge mistakes it was impossible for the business to continue.

Here are three common mistakes that lead to business failure:

1. Failing to have a Marketing Plan: You need to know who your target market is and how you’ll reach them.  Don’t think this is something you can ignore in the planning stages and figure out once you are open. Marketing must be part of your plan before you ever think of opening your doors.  If people don’t know that you exist, you will have a hard time staying in business.
2. Mismanagement:  Running a small business is demanding.  It takes time, money and energy to keep a small business operating.  Don’t think that you can hire someone to run it for you, at least not for a while.  In the beginning, it’s all about you and you have to be honest with yourself about just how capable of a manager you are.  If you make rash, fearful decisions or if you are not great at managing people, you will have a hard time making your business work.
3. Customer Service: This is a biggie. Once customers start frequenting your business, make sure you give them a reason to come back.  You would not believe how many businesses close because of poor service.  Think about it, we’ve all been places that had poor service and not only did we decide not to go back, but then we told all of our friends about how bad it was.

There is no such thing as a fail-proof business.  But you can get prepared to be a business owner. Writing a business plan is the first step. The planning process is about preparing you to be a business owner.  A plan will give you the best chance of success, start with a plan, get expert advice and be honest with yourself about where you need help. Not everyone can be good at all aspects of your business. Do what you do best and outsource the tasks you fall short on.