5 Mistakes That Are Killing Your Business

As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” With all the moving parts of a business to look after, it’s no wonder that some things fall through the cracks, affecting your business growth and bottom line. Here are five common mistakes that will eat away at your profits if left uncorrected.

1. Inconsistent Marketing

If social media is part of your marketing strategy, it’s just not enough to publish one Facebook post or a couple of tweets every week. Likewise (and more importantly), ignoring your email list is also detrimental to your marketing efforts. If you don’t keep up with a consistent marketing plan, people will forget your name, will forget how they ended up on your email list, or forget why they’re following you on social media. These people need to be won over again and they need to hear and see your company name on a consistent basis before they decide to spend money on your products or services.

A business strategy or marketing consultant can offer solutions and ideas to make your marketing more consistent and more effective if you’re struggling to come up with ideas on your own.

2. Failure to Automate

Are you stuck in the old school way of doing things, like making phone calls to confirm appointments instead of using automatic email or text reminders? Even posting on social media can be automated using platforms such as Hootsuite or SmarterQueue (affiliate link). Yes, these automation tools cost money, but compare the monthly or annual costs to the cost of an employee or a virtual assistant doing the same task. You shouldn’t automate all of your social media and tools like these won’t entirely replace an assistant or the value they bring – but you can use the assistant for more valuable tasks (or they can be the ones scheduling your posts instead of you…). Handling every single post in real time can be time consuming, thus costs you more money in the long run.

A savvy strategist or marketing assistant will be knowledgeable about the latest technology that can help you automate while sticking to your budget.

3. Poor Branding or Messaging

What is your company’s mission? What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)? If you can’t answer these two questions, you need to revisit your messaging and your business image. Branding is more than your logo and business colors; branding is your overall image and what you promise to your customers.

A business coach or consultant can ask the right questions that help you drill down to those core principles that drive your business.

4. Poor Money Management

What processes do you have in place for your bookkeeping and paying your monthly bills? Do you have any idea what your income and expenses really are? Do you have a habit of buying training classes that you don’t have time to use? There’s no reason you should be surprised at tax time with how much (or how little) profit you made in the last year. Businesses that are positioned for growth have good money management solutions in place and a business coach, accountant or financial planner can help you create a budget for your business along with solid processes for handling your monthly expenses.

5. Reluctance to Reinvest in Your Business

Think of reinvesting as a way to grow your business. Instead of taking all profits out to pay yourself every month, keep some of those profits in the business and use them to hire a virtual assistant, project manager or purchase software or training tools that will help your business. Each of these reinvestment options will help your business run more efficiently so you can have more time to serve your customers and prospects. Of course, you should pay yourself a salary every month. It’s the profits (or a percentage of the month’s profits) that should remain in the business to help it grow.

As you can see, there are professionals that can help you with just about anything, if you’re willing to do what’s needed to grow your business. If you’d like to discuss ways to automate and organize your business, let’s chat. Contact me today.

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