Running a business is hard work and even if your business is successful there are always ways to improve it. There are a few common mistakes almost EVERY business owner makes and most of the time they don’t even realize they’re doing it. Are you making some of theses mistakes? Probably, check them out and we will show you how to avoid making those mistakes and if you are currently making them we will show you how to fix it.

Be sure to watch our video too, to get the most out of this article!

Resources mentioned in the video:
– Dominate Google with our Local Overtake Technique (video & article) – top 5 ways to get on the 1st page of Google.

1. They Try To Do It All

A lot of business owners try to do everything themselves, but it is almost impossible, especially if you want to grow your business. There is so much involved in running a company that you will drive yourself insane trying to do it all yourself. If you are trying to open the doors, sweep the floors, order more product, advertise and market, take care of customers, answer phone calls, do the books, and close the door you will never do anything besides work. If you try to do it all to you will quickly find out you built yourself a job, not a business.

The Solution

Delegate, you can get more done when you delegate. You won’t be stuck in a rat race. You can spend more time growing your business than working in your business. Think of the big companies like Google, Microsoft, Starbucks, or other big companies in your area, the owners are not there sweeping floors, doing the bookkeeping, or even opening the doors. They are focused on growing the company, not working in it. If you don’t learn to delegate you will put a cap on the growth of your company and your company will never hit its full potential.

If you are not ready to hire employees that’s fine but find a company to handle your marketing, to take care of your bookkeeping, and other tasks that take up a lot of time. The best thing you can do for your business is realize you are there to grow the business and you need to bring in help to run it.

2. They Only Focus On One Type Of Marketing

There are many types of marketing and only focusing on one can really limit the growth of your company. Yes, marketing techniques can depend on the type of business you own, but in general you should be using multiple marketing strategies.

The Solution

You need multiple types of marketing to gain the most customers possible. You have many options ranging from print marketing, online marketing, TV and radio, and direct mail. AND it goes beyond that, for example, look at online marketing; you can do pay per click, website seo, video marketing, video seo, social media, banner ads, directory marketing, etc. and then you can go even further than that. Take video marketing for example, you can do YouTube marketing  Video SEO, and video Adwords and you should be doing all of them to maximize your marketing efforts.

Yes, it will take time and it may cost you some money but focus on one thing at a time and you will eventually build up a killer marketing campaign as you begin to add more marketing avenues.

3. They Think They Are A Marketing Genius

Yes,  you can do a lot of marketing yourself but you are not a professional in everything. Your marketing efforts may not be as effective as they could be if you hired a marketing professional to do it for you. The sooner you realize your expertise is in the industry your business is in the sooner your business will grow.

The Solution

Sometimes it is best to hire a marketing company to do it for you. Not only will it save you time but they will probably do a better job than you because that is what they specialize in. For example, everyone can make a cup of coffee but if you own a coffee shop you probably make a much better cup of coffee because that is what you specialize in and have experience in. The same goes for marketing, if you want some online marketing hire an online marketing company. If you want video marketing, hire a video marketing company. Now, if you do want to do it yourself you can pay for a consultation with a marketing company to help lead you on the right path.

4. They Don’t Cater To Their Current Customers

A lot of business owners are focused on getting new customers, which is awesome, and like I said in mistake number 2, you should focus on many types of marketing. But, you need to cater to your current customers because they will keep coming back if you do. What’s the point on gaining new customers if they only come by once? Offering the best customer service possible will keep your customers coming back again and again.

The Solution

Small things like giving one of your regulars free products is a great way to keep them happy and to talk about you with their friends. If you own a coffee shop give them a free cup of coffee once in a while. If you own a running store give them a free water bottle with your logo on it. If you own a retail store give them a discount every once in a while. If you’re a contractor don’t charge them for consultations or give them a free service call. Last month I gave one of my customers a 20% discount on two video seo orders he was running for his business. I did this because he is a loyal customer and has been telling his friends about how great my company soldwithvideo.com has been with his video marketing. Now that I gave him that discount, he is even more likely to stay loyal to my business and continue to tell his friends and colleges about soldwithvideo.com

Another way to cater to your customers is  to run a contest or giveaway. This is also a great way to build more likes to your Facebook profile. Offer up a gift card to your business or a local restaurant. Tell everyone on your email list or customers walking into your business you are running a giveaway this month. To enter all they need to do is like you on Facebook and upload a picture of themselves with your product or them in your store and tag themselves and you in the picture. At the end of the month the customer with the most likes wins the gift card. This gets them to share the picture on their profile and ask friends to like their photo and when this happens it will appear in their news feeds and their friends news feeds. This will result in your contest spreading virally, reaching more potential customers, and gaining more likes and all it will cost you is a $25 or $50 gift card.

5. They Think Don’t Listen or Test New Ideas

The only way to continually improve your business is to listen to new ideas and customer feedback. A lot of business owners get stuck in the same ways of operating and this can kill the growth of your business. Think about it, are other companies in your industry being run the same way they were 10 or 20 years ago? Probably not. When was the last time you changed the process or methods within your business? If you haven’t changed anything in the last 6 months it’s about time you did. This can be things like your marketing, how you talk to customers, how you get things done in your business, rewarding employees, etc. And not all things need to be changed, but you should always be listening for new ideas, testing new ideas, and listening to your customers.

"Making mistakes as a business owner is excepted. Learn from them and adjust."
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The Solution

When you run a business you should always be listening to feedback from employees and customers and test new ideas and recommendations. You should test marketing ideas, you should test new methods of operating, ask employees for ideas to improve the business, ask your customers what they like and don’t like. There is always room for improvement and thinking you have the best process, product, customer service, or procedures is a huge mistake. It causes you to stop improving your business and limits your progression.  If you have no idea on what to improve on, ask your employees and customers. I guarantee they will give you at least one thing to improve one.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it useful and if you did let me know by leaving me a comment below or sharing it with your friends. If you want more marketing tips and advice feel free to join my newsletter by filling out the subscription box below.