How to Fix 3 Mistakes You’re Making As a Business Owner
- Jen Glantz is an entrepreneur and founder of Bridesmaid for Hire.
- She sat down with a success coach to identify the mistakes she’s making as a small business owner.
- Mistakes include saying yes to everything and not having a clearly defined business strategy.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for seven years. There are many benefits of running your own business and working alone: not only can you create your own schedule and follow your own productivity hacks, but you can also be the mastermind behind scaling your operation.
For a time I enjoyed sitting alone and brainstorming ideas on how to grow my business. But over the past two years, I’ve felt stuck and exhausted due to the stress of the pandemic and new habits I’ve picked up. This includes working longer hours than usual and feeling pressured to say yes to every client or opportunity as a way to make up for lost income during the pandemic.
To get back on track for the second half of 2022, I sat down with Amie Devero, a leadership, performance and leadership coach. She identified three main mistakes I make every day as an entrepreneur and what I can do to fix them.
Don’t let your email and phone rule the day
When I explained how often I check my email and have my phone by my side all day, Devero said it’s the first big mistake I make as an entrepreneur.
Devero recommends checking messages only at set times. To make this more stringent, I implemented pre-scheduled email and phone controls into my calendar and turned off my email and text notifications during the day.
The same goes for distractions on social media. I’m having trouble constantly checking my latest notifications, so I’ve started using a browser that temporarily disables access to these sites.
Solidify a business strategy
As my business expanded, I was pulled in many different directions. This left me feeling stuck and not knowing how to scale and grow in 2022. Devero said my fault is not having a solid business strategy.
“Small business people tend to just work on tactics,” Devero told me. “They never sit down and take the time to create a visionary goal and then consider the multitude of possible ways they could achieve it.”
To do this, Devero suggests that I take a step back and spend time determining the goals I want to work toward in 2022. To find a strategy to achieve these goals, I need to gather information about my competition and pinpoint my challenges and assets, what my passion as an entrepreneur is, and what sets my offerings apart.
I took three days in June to strategize ahead of Q3 and it helped so much.
You don’t have to say yes to everything
One of my biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur is saying yes to everything from speaking engagements to mentoring sessions. It eats up my focus and time.
“There are things that you think are critical to growing your business, and then there are things that aren’t,” Devero said.
Opportunities are everywhere, but Devero reminded me that time is limited. That’s why it’s important to know what to focus on.
To figure out my priorities, Devero recommends looking back at my current strategy and seeing what aligns with my goals right now. If it doesn’t fit my current focus, she said to say no and maybe revisit it later.
Having said yes to many things in the past, I now know that I must put every opportunity that comes my way through a review process to determine if it is taking me away from my strategy or fitting right in.
Consulting with a business coach was not only a great way to get clarity on the ingrained everyday mistakes I make, but also to find actionable solutions. If you don’t want to work with a business coach but still want to find out what work habits or business goals you can improve, take stock of how you spend your time each week and review what worked and what didn’t work during that time first half of the year.
This way you can start making changes for the future.