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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

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Article:

Top 10 Small Business Mistakes By Sharon Housley

Many small businesses make mistakes, and smart
entrepreneurs will learn from the mistakes of others. With
that in mind, we have compiled a list of some common
mistakes that small business owners often make....

1. Knowing It All

Business owners who think they have learned it all will
very often tend to fail. Even the most experienced
entrepreneurs have to be willing to learn continually.
There are always new technologies and markets emerging. It
is very important to learn these new technologies and adapt
to changing markets.

2. Blindly Taking Advice From Others

What works well for one business may or may not work as
well for another. It is important that all advice be
considered and weighed. When evaluating advice, be sure to
consider the source, the similarities, and the
dissimilarities to your situation, and then make a
determination of whether the advice is applicable or
relevant. Avoid the urge to just blindly follow the advice
of others, no matter how successful they might be.

3. Not Using Targeted Marketing Efforts

The most effective type of marketing is "targeted"
marketing. A locally-based retail store that spends money
on a global marketing campaign will likely spend that money
reaching customers who will never cross their threshold.
Target your audience with a clear message, and focus your
advertising in ways that will target legitimate prospective
customers.

4. Believing That If A Little Is Good, Then More Must Be
Better

This applies to a wide variety of business aspects. Not
everything in business will scale equally. For example, if
you conduct an email marketing campaign once a week and
have great results, that does not necessarily mean that
increasing the frequency of the mailings will lead to even
more positive results. Such assumptions can often lead to
big and costly mistakes.

5. Not Listening To Customers

Your customers are the best source of ideas and inspiration
available to you. Welcome both compliments and criticisms
from your customers. Small businesses can learn a lot from
their customers, so listen carefully to what they are
saying, and more importantly, listen to what they are not
saying!

6. Lack Of Diversification

Having all your eggs in one basket can be a serious mistake
that many small businesses fall into. Small businesses
should make an effort to diversify their income streams
whenever possible. The key to doing this successfully is to
strike a balance between diversifying your business
interests to create multiple revenue streams, yet not
spreading yourself or your staff too thin to adequately
handle everything.

7. Hiring Friends And Family

They are your family. You know them, you love them, but...
can you really afford to hire them? Hiring family members,
as well as close friends, can often do serious damage to
otherwise strong relationships. How someone behaves in a
social situation is not always a good indication of how
they will perform as an employee. Many small businesses
staff their companies with friends and relatives, and at
times it works just great; but when it doesn't, it can be
really messy, and can often lead to seriously damaged
personal and family relationships outside the business.
Avoid the urge to hire friends and family members as
employees.

8. Failure To Adapt

Businesses may need to make changes due to shifting
economic conditions or advances in technology. Small
businesses have the advantage of being agile, and most can
quickly and easily adapt to changing market conditions and
advancing technologies. Yet many still fail to do so, and
that can lead to serious problems.

9. Failure To Build Brand

Regardless of a company's size, building a brand is all
about establishing a reputation. Do not make the mistake of
thinking your company is too small to need a brand.
Identify an image or logo with your product or service in
order to effectively establish a brand, and then use that
image to reinforce your brand on an ongoing basis.

10 Failure To Track

It is critical that business owners track what works in
their business, and what does not. Why waste precious and
often limited advertising funds on marketing efforts that
do not result in sales. Monitor and track all marketing
efforts carefully, so you will know the best and most
successful options to spend your marketing funds and
efforts on.

These are just a few of the more common mistakes that small
businesses often make. Watch for and avoid making them
yourself!

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for
FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating,
editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition
Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll
http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing
software.

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