Mistakes are inevitable either you run a business or not. You may not make one but many mistakes before reaching the finish line. The point is: There are some commonly serious ones you can and have to avoid if you want your business to survive.
Generational perception
From years of observation, people have drawn some general conclusions about characteristics of different generations. Baby Boomers are the passive one while Millennials are the dynamic one and prefer working alone. Those conclusions are commonly assumed for the whole generation, however, not all of them have those personalities. When recruiting or managing employees, unneutral perceptions will cause bad impacts on your decisions and lead to inappropriate allocation or missing out on talented workers. They also affect negatively to staff’s feelings when their boss is not open-minded.
Thus, your recruitment and human resource management should be based on an objective analysis of each applicant and each employee. Let them take the responsibility for tasks that fit their skills instead of their generations. A company with a diverse working environment always inspires its workers more than a single generation one. Let your team members prove themselves before making any judgment.
Low price
Setting low price compared to other competitors is also a common way of differentiation and luring more customers. You may think that a slight lowering of price in exchange for a huge number of customers will bring net profit, not a net loss. However, that thought is only true at a certain level. If you do not keep a clear mind and fall into the trap of keeping the low price, you will lose clients before you realise it. Lowly priced products normally indicate that their quality is not so good as buyers bear the perception that high price means high quality.
Thus, try to differentiate in other ways like improving customer service or designing a unique product. What customers really want is not a very cheap product, they want to experience something special or something can make them special. Conducting a customer research is essential for understanding their needs and wants so that you can provide them exactly those things without losing company’s image.
Satisfaction
Who does not want to be successful, right? It is a very joyful and memorable moment when you reach your goals. However, sleeping over victory is not a good strategy. If you just acquired your competitor’s clients and are so happy about it, you can easily forget that yourself might be the next victim of other more capable companies. Or you just completed a huge project and received a bunch of money, you only think about partying and forget to prepare for the next project. This over satisfaction will slowly destroy your business.
Thus, remember that running a business is an endless marathon. After crossing one finish line, just take a short break and get ready to start over as there are still many lines in front of you. Always keep the motivation leading you to open that company to keep moving forward as in the business world, remaining in the same position means you are falling far behind.
Cliche
Operating based on settled regulations and protocols is good for stability and avoiding chaos. However, always following those cliche regulations and processes regardless of various different situations can lead to awkward moments. Sometimes handling everything, in the same way, makes employees feel that you don’t really care about them, you just need their contribution only. It will result in negative effects on performance and engagement.
Thus, try to talk to your staff or have someone else who is in charge of that team discuss with them. Find out the core issues and understand their feelings before making final decisions. It will show employees you are not only concerned about their ability but also support them with any problems. In return, you will receive their trust and a higher level of engagement.
Advice
Keeping an open mind and listening to others’ opinions and advice is a necessary character of a leader. However, while there is a wide range of blogs and forums full of general advice you can find online, it does not means that all companies can apply those pieces of advice. Obviously, you can not build your only-one-employee business following a general form for giant companies.
Thus, you need to understand your business situation and know which advice is really appropriate. When facing a problem, try to figure out the solution yourself first. If you are still not sure about your choice, hire a consultant agency or professional team to provide specific opinions. It may raise some costs yet secure your business’s operation and growth.
