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As a business owner, the fate of your employees and your entire company rests on your shoulders. In the face of such enormous responsibility, it’s important to make the right business decisions. Read on to discover four business owner mistakes that you do not have to make yourself.
Manage Your Own Finances
Many business owners, particularly those with small businesses, decide to multitask and manage their own finances. However, this can be a costly mistake. Most small business owners don’t have the expertise necessary to be a successful money manager. Even entrepreneurs with a finance background may lack the objectivity they need to make smart financial decisions. Some execute money investments that lead their companies into financial turmoil while others purchase too much inventory at once.
Without sound financial management, even an established company can have cash flow problems which can escalate until the firm faces bankruptcy. Taking out bad credit loans could be the only option to get your business back in the black.
Not Anticipating What Is Next
Business owners need to plan for the future if they want their business to survive long-term. You need to be able to anticipate what is on the horizon for your business. This enables you to make more informed business decisions. This is one of the advantages of internet. A more informed decision will have much better outcomes than a decision made emotionally in a moment of surprise. Make sure to anticipate future business disruptions, problems and potential successes. Anticipating future business needs is an easy way to avoid bad business decisions.
Take Your Employees For Granted
Whether they’re working in the finance department or on the front desk, your employees are one of your company’s most important assets. So it’s important that you never take them for granted.
Taking steps to improve your employee engagement model, by driving team-building exercises and offering regular performance feedback, will help your workers feel like an integral part of your company. Highly engaged employees are 2.5 times more likely to stay back to complete tasks, and more than three times as likely to go above and beyond for the good of the company. Companies with engaged employees also retain 18 percent more customers.
So neglect your employees at your peril. Taking small steps to engage and acknowledge them can make a big difference to your business.
Micromanage Your Workforce
Micromanaging can be as damaging as taking your workforce for granted. It is important as a manager to maintain a presence in your organization, but that presence should complement your employees. Remember that you employed your workers because they’re good at what they do. In many cases, they’ll be better at their area of expertise than you are. Trust in that, and give them the space they need to shine. Remember, conducting a cost-benefit analysis is not the only way to make business decisions. Micromanaging hurts staff morale and the company as a whole.
Not Setting SMART Goals
Additionally, when business owners do not set SMART goals, they lack direction. In turn, they make poor decisions on a variety of levels. If you do set SMART goals, however, you will determine your goals from the start. Moreover, you will be able to figure out the steps you need to take to achieve those goals. For this reason, not setting SMART goals is one of the worst business decisions you could make for your company. Instead, use this smart business practice to set your company up for success.
Neglect Your Customers
Too many business owners trust so much in their products or services that they take a hands-off approach to customer service, believing that customers will use their company regardless. However, just like a plant, a customer base needs nurturing to grow.
Customer service should be the greatest priority of any organization. Seven out of ten buying decisions are based on how customers feel they’re treated. For every customer complaint you receive, there are probably 26 more unhappy customers. Dissatisfied customers typically tell between nine and 15 people of their bad experience, so negative word of mouth can spread quickly. Instilling a corporate culture where customer service is delivered with a smile and complaints are resolved quickly will help your business succeed.
Inviting customer feedback will also pay off. Use local marketing tactics to reach consumers and get your company onto review websites for customers to offer you feedback easily. Your clients will feel valued, and you’ll learn ways to improve your business.
Identify The Correct Problem
Before making any decision, you can break it down into smaller steps to ensure the best possible outcome. Take time to make sure you correctly identify the problem you are experiencing. If the printer is breaking all the time, you could easily just decide to purchase a new one. However, you may be missing the real issue that workers are not properly trained to operate the machine when they first come on board. Make sure to look at all information regarding the decision you have to make in order to properly identify the problem. This is also true when dealing with issues from a particular customer segment. When you properly identify the problem, you are much better prepared to offer the correct solution. Making a decision requires you to know all your options. So, correctly identity your problem and then you can make a decision that is actually a solution.
Noting the mistakes others have made can ensure that you make sound business decisions to benefit your company, your employees, and your customers. In order to not make these same mistakes, there are some decision-making techniques that you can use to ensure you make the best possible decisions for your business.
