8 Most Common Mistakes made by Business Owners

As a professional business coach and mentor, I see many small business owners whose lives are ruled by their business – not the other way around. They burn themselves out working outrageously long hours when they could be spending more time at home with their families and friends and taking time out to enjoy life.

So many of them began their business so they could be "the boss" and work their own hours. What happens is their lack of experience turns this around on them and they become slaves to their businesses.

Having started many successful businesses myself, as well as coaching and mentoring other new business owners, I understand more than most just how easy it is to become "stuck" and become trapped in bad habits. It's easy to say "work smarter, not harder" – but what does that mean exactly? Most small business owners don't have a clue.

So here are just eight of some of the more common mistakes small business owners make, so you can avoid them and if you are already trapped, what you can do about them:

1. They don't set clear goals. Would you drive off on a journey, wanting to get to destination X, and not bother to take a road map and use it? You could get lost. You could end up anywhere. You could drive around in circles and run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere! You must have a clear understanding of where you want your business to go, with a few ideas of some of the ways you can reach that goal. You must create a solid vision and set clear and attainable targets to give you and your business direction. This acts as your "road map".

2. They confuse being busy with being successful. It's a fine line. Many successful people are quite busy, but then again, many new starters are also busy and failing to reach their desired levels of success. To an extent, working long hours in a business that really does require our personal input is part and parcel of being a successful business owner, however, could you say you are successful if all you have is work and the rest of your life is non-existent? I don't call that successful. Success is having a profitable business AND having and enjoying personal and financial freedoms to spend time with our loved ones and friends and do the things we really enjoy in life.

3. Poor Advertising. Many small business owners are not natural 'marketers' and that is one of their biggest downfalls. You must identify your target market and address your marketing efforts directly to them and your marketing message MUST address their needs, not yours. You must consistently target your market with the marketing message that answers their question of "what's in it for me?" You don't tell them how important YOU are or how long you've been in business or how you're looking for new clients. You identify their problems and and tell them how you can solve them AND you make them take action to contact you promptly.

4. Not targeting their true "target market". Some people think if you market to everybody on the planet, sooner or later, one of them has to respond. It's a big planet – your message will just get lost in the "noise" and confusion of all the other millions of ads out there doing the same thing to the same people. To be successful, your marketing efforts MUST focus on your own target market – you must know who they are, their demographics, how they think, behave, where they hang out, and how you can get your message to them. Without this knowledge, your marketing dollar is being wasted, however, when you are in contact with your true target market, you are in contact with people who really do want and need your services!

5. Get trapped into wanting new customers. There's no doubt that every business needs new customers, however, to focus your attention on only bringing in new customers all the time is not only tiring, it's very expensive. Realize that you have already invested time and money in getting the clients you already have – if you let them "walk", think of the wastage. Think of your existing customers as an investment, and you will see a higher return on this investment if you can keep them coming back giving you return business. By working on your existing customers and giving them excellent service, you also increase word of mouth referrals – which is free marketing for your business.

6. Working IN their business instead of ON their business. This is a common trap for small business owners who tend to do too much themselves. If you can't afford full time employees, consider part time and virtual assistants (if the nature of your business can utilize that type of service.) Consider this – if you are the one managing your diary, organizing your own appointments, doing your own research, doing the books, operating the cash register, ordering the stock, doing the payroll, managing the employees, opening and closing the shop every day… who is looking at the big picture and making decisions that will grow the business? Who is doing your marketing and advertising research? Not you, obviously, because you're too busy doing everything else. This is a nasty trap to fall into and you can get out of it by systemizing your business and hiring people who can do many of those mundane tasks for you. This will provide a business that can run itself – freeing up that time so you can work ON your business instead of IN it.

7. Hiring the wrong people. Anybody can fall into the trap of hiring the wrong person for the job, but if you take note of their ability and experience as it relates to the job they're applying for and you check their references, you'll have a better chance of hiring the right person. There are many online resources that provide assistance in helping small businesses find the right employees, offering interview hints, and so on. Take advantage of these free resources and it will save you a lot of wasted time and money if you choose the wrong person. You can't focus on what you need to be doing if your mind is constantly worrying about what your employees might be doing wrong and you have to waste time constantly supervising their efforts.

8. Wasting money on bad marketing. If it didn't work the first time, why would you waste money repeating it a second or third time? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and you need to fix it before using it again, otherwise your marketing money is just going down the drain and you may as well not bother. A typical example is placing an ad in your local community newspaper. Maybe you ran it for a couple of weeks and had zero response. That means it doesn't work, so don't keep running it. It might just be something simple as needing to change the heading, or rewording the body, or placing it under a different category. You must track your advertising expenses and measure the results you get from each attempt so you can assess the real effectiveness of each effort. Only then will you know if a particular ad is worth repeating or needs reworking.

Finally, never give up. Many of my clients have been total novices making all of the above mistakes, and today are the owners of thriving small businesses, enjoying a healthy work/life balance. This is how I know you can do it, too.