March 12th 2008
- 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. Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. 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.
- 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. Don’t use an antiquated computer with outdated software that slows you down if you can afford something better.
- Going against your intuition.
Intuition is just as important in business as it is in other settings. You’d be amazed at how many corporate deals are green-lighted because of some Managing Directors gut feeling. While you might think that logic is the language of business, that’s far from reality.
- Being too formal.
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.
- Sacrificing your personality quirks.
It’s perfectly OK to be your own weird self and to inject your own unique spirit into your business. Don’t be afraid to be more like Steve Jobs… and less like Steve Ballmer. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Ultimately you’ll enjoy your work much more if you attract the kinds of customers and partners that want to work with you for who you are — warts and all. Send the people who only want to work with androids to your corporate competitors.
- 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.
- Failing to optimize.
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 business 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.