How to make certain your start up business doesn’t succeed…

This post is a tour of Mistakes a Business Owner Shouldn’t Make. if you want your start up business to succeed.

See, I’ve recently had a situation where a business owner, for whom I do contract work, made a HUGE mistake.  Rather than to promptly admit she made an error, she’s proceeded to pile lie upon lie in an effort to AVOID stepping up and taking responsibility for her actions. I assume she’s hoping to discover how many lies it takes to equal the truth.  Each lie she tells to cover up the original mistake only takes her even deeper into "denial".   I am reminded of the admonition:  "When you find yourself in a hole, the first order of business is to quit digging!"

As I watch the situation unfold before me, I am quite certain I am witnessing the death of my client’s business… literally.  Fortunately, this is not my only client, so the death of her business will not mean the death of mine.  However, I am still saddened to watch this truly brilliant and creative person trash a business she has devoted almost a decade of her life to building.

There’s a reason PRIDE is called one of the seven DEADLY sins.  In business, a certain amount of pride is necessary to take the steps needed to launch a business.  However, pride can sometime lead to defending your mistakes (denying your mistakes instead of admitting you made one), which may be the most insidious destroyer of small businesses.  While the inability to admit (and promptly correct) mistakes may wound a larger organization, in a small start up, such denial will literally destroy your business.

Sometimes, mistakes are simply a result of a Business Rules Problem.

If employees don’t know, don’t understand, or don’t care what the rules are, you have a business rules problem.

If customers get different answers depending on who they talk to, you have a business rules problem.

If salespeople can decide whether to charge the right price or a bogus price, you have a business rules problem.

Part of living is making mistakes and admitting errors

There are different types of mistakes, and some are more damaging than others. There are even good mistakes. In any case, it’s important that every business owner, manager, or staffer admit their errors and use the result as a learning tool.

Whether you’re Selling to Small Business Owners and end up failing to plan for growth probably the biggest mistake business professionals make when it comes to blogging is failing to post content on a regular basis.

One thing about mistakes, once you’ve owned up to them, you can then begin mining them for the gold that they contain. Sometimes, digging deep reveals your mistake has it’s root in unrealistic expectations.

Whatever the case, history teaches us over and over that covering up our mistakes only serves to worsen the consequences.  Oh, and if your mistake doesn’t result in a lawsuit, then consider yourself lucky!

In the end, it’s important for small business owners to realize what Eric Sink learned from Selling the Wheel:

One of my favorite axioms of business is that context determines strategy and tactics.  As a company goes through the various stages of its life, the stuff that works in one stage will probably produce failure in the next.  A bad idea now might very well be a good idea later.

Adapting to a changing market is an essential skill for any small business owner.  Recognizing that the definition of success is falling down 8 times and getting up 9 is essential information for any small business owner. 

When you refuse to admit you’ve made a mistake, you can’t make the changes necessary to ensure that you don’t REPEAT that mistake. 

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