Have You Made These Business Blunders?

If you’ve started a business, you’ve made mistakes. Here are 4 mistakes I’ve made and what I learned from them.

• Being more concerned with business development than customer/client development. Most money comes from your existing customers. Don’t lose sight of nourishing relationships and trying to make your existing customers happier.
• Thinking “Cash is King.” Cash is NOT king – cash FLOW is king. Manage the money you’ve made. We often worry about making money and spend almost no time managing the money or the business we have. Manage your cash flow by getting financial rhythm in your business. It’s easy to chew up money that you have by not watching the money you don’t For example – you might think you have the cash to grow, but do you have the cash flow to fund the impact of that growth.
• Working with clients you can’t stand . Avoid working with clients you don’t trust or respect or who take advantage of you – no matter how big they are or how big the project. This took me years to realize. At one point I analyzed our $6 million client base and realized 60% of our clients weren’t profitable and, incidentally, it was the same 60% of our clients that we didn’t like, respect or trust (in short, 60% of our clients sucked!). As a business owner you are allowed to choose your clients. Choose those who value your service/products, pay on time and who are loyal.
• Asking people to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself. To stay efficient and lead effectively you must organize yourself first and then others.