6 Things That Will Instantly Hurt Your Business

You’ve poured your heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears into your business. You’ve given your all to get to where you are now, and you’re proud of every inch you’ve gained and every dollar you’ve earned. So why are you doing things to sabotage your success?

I spend a lot of time looking into small businesses to see what’s working for them and what isn’t. And I can tell you some of you are doing things right now that will instantly hurt your business. I can only assume you’re doing these things because you don’t realize the impact of your actions.

I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think it’s important to warn you that success can be fleeting. If you’re not careful, everything you’ve worked so hard for can go straight down the tubes in a heartbeat.

Here are 6 things you might be doing that will instantly hurt your business:

1. Not having a clear vision, mission or purpose

If you don’t know what you want your business to look like, what success looks like for you, what drives your business, and why you’re in business, what are you doing? Do you even know? If, at any point, you find yourself lacking clarity, focus and specific motivators, you’ll soon be spinning your wheels. Make the effort to get back on track. Successful entrepreneurs have a strong vision, mission, and they know their purpose for being in business.

2. Not being able to say what you do and for whom

When you meet a new prospect or potential business connection, you should be able to clearly state what your business does and who you help in a succinct and compelling statement. I don’t really care if you call this an elevator pitch, a 30-second commercial, or your unique selling proposition. The point is, you need to be able to effectively communicate why someone would want to work with you. Being unclear, vague, or rambling on and on senselessly makes you look – well, kind of like an airhead. You’ll miss out on tons of business and opportunities.

3. Not managing your time

Procrastination, in general, is a nasty habit. When you’re an entrepreneur, procrastination can be your biggest downfall. You don’t have a boss checking up on you to make sure your work is getting done in a timely manner. When you procrastinate, you can miss deadlines and undermine your credibility. Important projects can go unfinished and significant business details, such as bookkeeping, can fall through the cracks. When you don't carefully plan your day, time will slip by unnoticed, and you will quickly become overwhelmed.

4. Not making marketing a priority

Too many entrepreneurs hate marketing and sales. To be successful as an entrepreneur, you must learn to love marketing and embrace sales. You can’t just hang up your shingle and expect clients to line up at your door. If you build it, trust me, there's a good chance "they" are not coming. Some people become pretty successful without marketing right out of the gate, and some ride the word-of-mouth referral wave for years. But without consistent marketing, the well will eventually run dry. Learn as much as you can about marketing, set aside a dedicated amount of time each week to market your business, and establish a clear sales process to enroll prospects.

5. Over promising, under delivering

This is a biggie, and it’s a difficult one to break, especially for people pleasers. When you’re an entrepreneur, you are your brand and you have nothing but your word. If you state when something will get done and miss a deadline, or you set expectations for a certain level of quality and fail to meet it, you’ll create a reputation for not being able to live up to your word. It will wreak havoc on your reputation. And, really, without your reputation, you’ve got nothing.

6. Bleeding money

Tracking your cash flow and managing your expenses is critical to the success of your business. Spending too much money on the wrong things, using debt irresponsibly, and not making informed decisions about money can leave you in a real crunch. If you're not taking an honest look at your finances, you're not really in business. You're living in a fantasy world, believing only what you want to believe.

There are more things you can do to instantly hurt your business -- cloud your brand (a confused mind never buys), joint venture with the wrong person (be careful who you climb into bed with), or not monitoring your reputation (pay attention to what people are saying about you, particularly online) -- are just a few that come to mind.

What mistakes have you made that harmed your business? How did you remedy it?

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