5 Fatal Mistakes That Will Kill Your Business
The experience of bringing a business idea to life and ensuring its longevity is full of learning curves. Some slip-ups are par for the course, trial-and-error, and can be happy accidents in the end. Others, however, can be fatal in the life of a business. Without reason, it’s these fatal mistakes that can be most common among new entrepreneurs. To ‘err is human but why not learn from others and avoid these five mistakes that are sure to kill your business:
Mistake 1 – “The Handshake Deal”
In any business, making sales or completing deals is difficult. Sometimes out of urgency or fear of the other party changing their mind, we don’t take the time or effort to formalize the deal in writing. Whether it is a sale with a customer or a deal with a vendor or partner, formalizing it in writing is crucial. This provides the clarity of what is expected from both parties, and the comfort that someone didn’t assume certain items incorrectly. If anyone promotes a deal to not being formalized in writing for any “good reason,” consider that deal too expensive for your business. While legal fees are very undesirable, some upfront fees to prepare agreements can save you and your business. Protect yourself and your business and put everything in writing!
Mistake 2 – The False Security Of Social Media
While social media is free and SUPER powerful for any company, it has tainted the reality of marketing budgets and given new business owners an incorrect assumption of what vital marketing budgets should be. The average allocation for business’ marketing budgets is 10% of gross sales. While social media is crucial and inexpensive, don’t let it fool you of what you need to allocate towards your marketing budget in order to adequately promote your products or services. It doesn’t matter if you have the best product or services if no one knows about it, and social media is just a small piece of the marketing pie. Get noticed!
