Mistakes are an inevitable part of business. Making progress is all about taking risks and learning from these risks, whether they pay off or not. However, there are certain mistakes many business owners are still making unnecessarily, perhaps without even realising it. If you’re very involved with your business’s day to day operations, perhaps you need to take a step back and evaluate whether you’re looking at the bigger picture and planning for the future. If you are fixated on the present, then the following are some forward-thinking changes you could benefit from making.
Drop problematic clients
The prospect of losing a client is horrifying for most business owners. It reeks of failure and a drop in profits, but when you consider how much time, energy and resources can be sunk into retaining difficult clients, you’ll realise its more profitable to cut your losses. You can then invest all of that manpower into landing new leads and looking after existing clients who are more of an asset to your company.
Customer service is non-negotiable
Every business proudly states that they make customer service a priority, but whether they stick to this, however, is another matter entirely. Going above and beyond for your clients is no longer a point of difference you can flaunt to sell yourself over the competition – it’s mandatory. Customer satisfaction is the number one priority of every business and this means always being on hand to answer questions, resolve problems and offer assistance. If you don’t have the resources to dedicate to this level of customer engagement, then you should take a look at restructuring your priorities.
Diversify revenue streams for your own survival
Channelling all of your time and energy into keeping a large client with a strong revenue stream happy may seem like a smart business move, but it could be disastrous for you if this client leaves you. Always prepare for the worse and ensure you have revenue streams coming in from multiple sources. This way, you will be able to survive the loss of one, or more of your clients.
Always keep a backup of important filess
This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many business owners forget to back something up and lose everything. Don’t grow lax and only occasionally back your information up, make it an ingrained habit to ensure you always have a spare presentation, sales pitch, or client project should the unthinkable happen and your servers crash. Having a cloud based storage solution will ensure your back up is safe and isolated in the unseen world of the internet.
Keep in tune with your industry
If there’s new technology coming out that has been designed specifically for your industry, then you should be aware of it and already settled on whether you’ll utilise it or not. It’s far too easy to get left behind in the fast-paced world of technology, and if you’re not keeping up to date on new and emerging tools, you’re likely to become outclassed. This same logic applies to new industry regulations, policies, laws and any other information that could be crucial to your business.
Next week, we will cover the next four guidelines on learning from common mistakes of business owners.
Paul Finn, CEO and Founder, WebsiteDesign.com.au
