Let’s face it – running a business is difficult, taxing and challenging, no matter how big or small it is. You have many people to manage, customers to please, and suppliers to pay. No one can run a business perfectly without making a mistake. However, running a business also includes learning from others’ mistakes and trying to avoid doing the same for your business.

We have collated some of the common mistakes committed by many businesses which have led to their downfall. It is vital to understand and learn from it. See how it fits in your business and take thoughtful steps to overcome it.

 

Common Mistakes in Running a Business and Its Solutions

Ignoring Market Research

Market research doesn’t mean your friends, families, and acquaintances. Even though the honest opinions they share, they are still a small pool of people compared to the market you are targeting. Some of them may not be your ideal customers or may not require your services and therefore, getting feedback and opinions from them isn’t going to help your business much.

Solution: Expand your research beyond friends and acquaintances. Make use of the online data, take regular surveys from your target audience and let your research be conducted on a large scale that gives you a better idea of the market. You can even hire a data analysis and research company to do the market research for you.

Taking Too Long to Establish Online Presence

If you haven’t established your online presence yet, then it is going to be one of the biggest blunders for your company. The world is going digital and if you aren’t there to embrace it, the potential audience will not be able to reach you.

Solution: Be where your customers are and that’s mostly online. Start by creating an awesome website, social media page, and interact with customers regularly. Observe what others are doing and include online presence as a part of your lead increasing process.

Failing to Have Long-Term Business Strategies

When you are starting the business, you may have the strategy to lead 100 customers, then 1000 customers, and so on. These are all short-term strategies that are set to work in the current time. However, some businesses that are succeeding in the current phase and may even bet at the top of their industry could face the downfall if they aren’t prepared for the future.

Solution: It is vital to see above the current business success and plan for long-term benefits and customer acquisitions. The strategy can be used to create some customer loyalty programs, invest in some online marketing strategies, or to buy the new technology adopted by your competitors. Make sure to create a long-term goal that you want to achieve and align your short-term goals accordingly.

Trying to Do a Lot with A Small Group

Initially, you may not have many employees, but the few you have are the ones who are ready to wear on many hats. Sometimes, as the business expands, some business owners fail to hire new talent and workforce in the hopes that the existing ones can take care of it. This brings too much pressure on the employees and could lead to burnout.

Solution: Instead of squeezing out a lot from the employees, when the right time comes, hire new people with relevant skills. Keep an eye out for the existing employees, allow them to talk to you freely and encourage them to take some time off work for personal life too.

Underpricing Your Product or Service

To gain more customers, sometimes underpricing the services or products compared to your competition works well. However, in the long run, the business may end up at loss if it is not taking into account the benchmark for profits by factoring in all the operational and working costs.

Solutions: As you price a product, have a clear benchmark from where you will get profits and fix a certain percentage of profit. To acquire customers, introduce a small percentage of discounts and then upsell those customers eventually, this will help in the long-term. Make sure not to lose sight of the purpose of pricing a product and keeping a complete pricing guideline to follow for any other upcoming needs too.

Now that you are aware of some of the common misleading business mistakes, it is time to take a hard look at your own company. If you have any of these issues, start working on a long-term efficient solution.