When running a business the same mistakes happen time and time again. These are the ones to avoid.

1. Selling to the wrong people. - While sales are important to the survival of any business, you don't need to push your business on everyone you meet, including friends and family. Furthermore, it's a waste of time to try selling to people who simply don't need what you're offering. Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. Some customers are much easier to sell to than others. Feel free to say no to customers that are more trouble than they're worth. Let your competitors sell to them instead. You'll save yourself many headaches, and you'll free up more time to focus on serving the best customers. Don't network with random people just because you think you're supposed to network. Most relationships simply aren't worth pursuing. Learn to say no to the weak opportunities so you have the capacity to say yes to the golden opportunities.
2. Spending too much money. - Until you have a steady cashflow coming in, don't spend your precious start-up cash unless it's adding real value to your business. Your business should put cash into your pocket, so before you "invest" money into it, be clear on how you're going to pull that cash back out again.
3. Spending too little money. - It's also a mistake to be too stingy with your cash. Don't let frugality get in the way of efficiency. Take advantage of skilled contractors who can do certain tasks more efficiently than you can. Buy decent equipment when it's clear you'll get your money's worth. You don't have to overspend on fancy furniture, but get functional furniture that helps you be more productive. Don't use an antiquated computer withoutdated software that slows you down if you can afford something better. It takes time to develop the wisdom to know when you're being too tight or too loose with your cash, so if you're just starting out, get a second opinion. Often the very thought of getting a second opinion makes the correct choice clear. If you can't justify the expenditure to someone you respect, it's probably a mistake. On the other hand, there are situations where it's hard to justify not spending the cash.
4. Putting on a fake front. - Many one-person businesses refer to themselves as "we." That's something a lot of new entrepreneurs do, but it isn't necessary. There's nothing wrong with a one-person business, especially today. It's perfectly OK to refer to your business as an I when you're the only one working in it. Pretending that you're a we when you're really an I is a bit silly. It's not going to gain you any respect in a way that matters. Promoting yourself as an I may even be an advantage today, since people will know the buck stops with you, and if you make a promise, you're the one who will carry it out. Promises from a we sometimes aren't worth very much.
5. Assuming a signed contract will be honoured. - A signed contract is just a piece of paper. What's behind a signed contract is a relationship. If the relationship goes sour, the contract won't save you. The purpose of a contract is to clearly define everyone's roles and commitments. But it's the relationship, not the paper, that ultimately enforces those commitments. Once you start falling back on the paper, the deal is already in trouble. Creative (and lucrative) business deals almost always stray from the paper contracts that  epresent them. Written contracts are still necessary, especially when dealing with larger corporations where people come and go, but they're secondary to relationships. Just don't make the mistake of assuming that the contract is the deal. The contract is only the deal's shadow. The real deal is the relationship. Keep your business relationships in good order, and you won't have to worry so much about what's on paper.
6. Going against your intuition. - Intuition is just as important in business as it is in other settings. You'd be amazed at how many gigantic corporate deals are green-lighted or red-lighted because of some CEO's gut feeling. While you might think that logic is the language of business, that's far from reality. If you base all your business deals on hard logic and ignore your intuition, most likely you'll be in for a world of hurt. We humans aren't very logical to begin with. We simply don't have enough data to make truly logical decisions because business deals depend on human beings, and we don't have a logical system for accurately predicting human behaviour. Not being able to predict how other humans will behave is a pretty big gap in our logic. And intuition has to fill that gap. The real performance of human beings is what makes or breaks business deals. But to assume everyone will perform as expected is unrealistic in the extreme. No deal ever goes perfectly.It's hard to say no to a deal that seems juicy by the numbers when my gut is saying, "You'll regret it," but more often than not, I later see evidence my intuition was right all along. Sometimes I just get a bad read on someone, and then years later, several people I know are complaining about being ripped off by that person. Intuition is a critical part of the decision-making process in business. Since business deals depend on relationships, you need to get a read on the other people involved in any deal you consider. If you get a bad feeling, walk away. If you get a good feeling, proceed with caution.
7. Being too formal. - I'll say it again. Business is built on relationships. In some settings a certain degree of formality is appropriate, but in most business situations, being too formal only gets in the way. Business relationships work best when there's a decent human-to-human connection behind them. Human beings don't want to build relationships with faceless corporations. They only want relationships with other human beings. Treat your business relationships like friendships (or potential friendships). Formality puts up walls, and walls don't foster good business relationships. No one is loyal to a wall... except the one in China. Formality is boring and tedious. People want to enjoy their work. If someone addresses me like a computer, I'll respond in kind — by hitting delete. But if someone demonstrates they have a real personality and a good sense of humour, a connection is far more likely.
8. Sacrificing your personality quirks. - In the early years of running my business, I took myself too seriously and assumed that I had to act "business-like" ... whatever that meant. Being self-employed was a weighty responsibility, and other people were counting on me. It took a number of years, but eventually I became comfortable just being myself. Now that I'm a blogger, my personality quirks and unusual experiences are strengths. My personal oddities give this blog a unique flavour. If I were to take myself too seriously and write more formally, this blog would be very dull and would likely lose much of its audience. If other people can't handle your weirdness, too bad for them. Focus your energy on the people who can.
9. Failing to focus on value creation. - It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the purpose of a business is to make money. But the real purpose of a business is to create value. While it's possible to make money in the short run without creating much value, in the long run it's unsustainable. When you know your business is just sucking value away from others without providing anything in return, it will erode your self-esteem, and the business won't be much fun to run. Why does your business exist? It exists to provide some sort of value, both for you and your customers. The better you understand what value you're trying to provide, the better you'll be able to focus. Too often business owners aren't clear on what value they're trying to provide. They just sell stuff and hope for the best. That's a lousy business model. The world doesn't need more selling or more stuff. But it always needs and wants genuine value creation, and that is where you should direct your efforts.
10. Failing to optimise. - Although value creation is essential to a sustainable business, it's equally naive to assume you can simply focus on creating value, and the rest will take care of itself. You may build a usiness that provides good value but loses money. As a business owner, you need to find a way to deliver your value in a cost effective manner. Most likely your first attempt will be very sub-optimal.
    You'll waste too much time, money, and resources trying to produce and deliver your value. That's OK though. Many businesses start out that way. Just don't let yours stay that way.

Once you have a particular business process in place, pull it apart and re-optimise it from time to time. Look for ways to make it more efficient. Can you get it done in less time? At less cost? Can you do it less frequently? Can you outsource it? Can you dump the process altogether?

Don't fall into the trap of using archaic methods for doing routine tasks that could be automated, including inventory management, billing, accounting, order processing, communications, and marketing. If you find yourself doing the same repetitive tasks month after month, make sure you put some effort into optimising them. Not optimising is like throwing time and money down the drain. It's often much easier to save time and money than it is to create them.

Let's discuss this subject further, please comment on this blog, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Ian or call 07760 404274