As the owner of a small business, it’s your job to become a Jack of all trades in your company. Unfortunately, by doing everything at once, it makes it much easier to make avoidable mistakes.
The worst part is these avoidable mistakes can threaten the long-term health of your otherwise thriving business. So it’s vital to know common mistakes that small business owners tend to make so that you can avoid them in the future.
How Clear Is Your Purpose?
If you ever intend to achieve lasting success in your business, you need to clearly define your purpose and strive to achieve what you set out to do.
As a small business owner, it’s your job to spend time developing a vision, a mission, and ultimately a purpose for your organization.
It really doesn’t even matter what type of business you start. It can be a dry cleaner, a restaurant, a delivery service, or anything else for that matter.
Ultimately, you need to understand your mission. You need to discover why your company exists and why people would want to purchase your products and services.
At the end of the day, once you’ve discovered your purpose, you’ll find it easier than ever to determine which direction your business should go. So having a purpose and knowing what it is is certainly a step in the right direction.
Choosing the Perfect Name for Your Business
To some people, this might seem like a superficial mistake on the surface. But when it comes to branding, marketing, and attracting people to your company, picking the perfect name is absolutely crucial to your success.
As an example, let’s say you plan to open an auto body shop. But unlike all the other auto body shops in the neighborhood, you plan to guarantee your work will be complete in a specific amount of time.
With that said, it would make sense to come up with a name for your business in alignment with this goal.
You wouldn’t want to call yourself Turtle Auto Body Repair or Slowpoke Body Shop!
On the contrary, you’d want to call yourself Speedy Body Shop or something similar.
So never discount choosing your name. It really is that important.
According to SecStates.com, nationwide and Georgia business entity search website, “Find information on any corporation or business entity in the United States by performing a search on the Secretary of State website of the state or territory where the corporation is registered.”
So, if you feel like you’ve come up with the perfect name for your business, check with your local Secretary of State to find out if the name is still available.
It’s possible that somebody else is already using it, so you may have to come up with another name.
Starting Your Business without a Budget
When you first start a small business, money is often very tight in the beginning. This is true unless you already have achieved business success in other areas and you have nearly unlimited capital to spare.
For most new small businesses, it’s often imperative to operate within a strict budget.
This is where problems typically arise.
Most small business owners fail to create a budget in the beginning. And they accidentally overspend in certain areas that will immediately leave them fighting to stay afloat.
Sure, you’re going to incur expenses when you first start a business. That’s all part of the risk and reward process. You should avoid spending needlessly and never purchase things that aren’t within your budget.
Conclusion
It’s definitely challenging to run a successful small business. So create your mission statement, make budgeting a top priority, and choose the perfect name for your business.
If you can accomplish these things, achieving startup success will become a little bit easier.
