Avoiding Critical Business Mistakes That Lead to Failure

FAILURE is the word that every entrepreneur must face head on if they are to succeed. There are two sayings that always stick with me when I speak about failure to fellow entrepreneurs:

If you haven’t failed at all, then you really aren’t trying hard enough
Failure is part of the process, just learn from it and don’t do it again

Now there are two types of failure – small mistakes that you learn from, move on and don’t make anymore; and critical mistakes that can be catastrophic leading to going out of business.

Recently, I came across this great article on “Eight Mistakes that Devastate Business Owners” and it really resonated with me. In the article they list eight mistakes:

Keep your retirement savings intact.
Avoid the lure of sole proprietorship.
Read the fine print.
Get insured.
Get an employment contract.
Protect your innovations.
Don’t promise what you can’t promise.
Check the books.

I know this list might seem obvious but if you are new to starting a business, think about this list for a minute. When you are in the middle of something you forget about these things or think “it will never happen to me”. All I can say is that from this list, over the 10 years I have been in business I have had three things come to bite me in the butt and while they were recoverable, if they were any bigger it would have destroyed my business and in some cases left me personally bankrupt.

They are all equally important and you should read the full article to get some great examples of when people don’t do these things. I guarantee you will be bringing these issues up at your next partner/board meeting.

Real Ways for Small Business

Your Small Business Advisor!