While it is expected that someone just beginning a business is going to make mistakes, there are many which can be avoided.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know where the largest potholes are on your freeway to a successful and profitable business venture?

Thinking “I can figure it out”

I only work with smart women who can “figure it out”.  In fact, given enough time, I believe you eventually will figure it out.  I’ve been in the IT industry for over 20 years and I’ve invested well over $100k in not only my formal education but also sitting at the feet of millionaires to learn what I know today.  Do you really want to go to that expense and effort?  Probably not, if you know there is another way!  Would you rather have someone hand you a template and some really easy instruction and get it done?

Saying or believing “I Can’t Afford It” , (whatever IT is)

I used to say this all the time and I was mystified that my reality was that I was frustrated all the time.  When I began to not say this and instead I asked a better question.  The better question was, “How can I afford this?” and almost like a miracle, a way appeared that I did not see before that made it possible for me to be able to afford what I wanted.  You would be amazed what you can create for yourself when you choose to ask a better, more empowering question!

You don’t believe in yourself enough to truly charge what you’re worth and get it

Most of the women that I work with are not charging what they are worth in the beginning.  They’re also overworked and stressed out about not being able to meet their financial obligations.  There is a formula to what you should charge for your signature program.  Do you find that you are not able to spend time with the important people in your life?  Do you eat meals at your desk?  Are you tired?  Are you creating a marketable product for someone else who charges 10 or more times what you are paid to create it?  You’re probably not being paid what you’re worth.

Not doing enough marketing or follow up

Marketing and followup are systems that you use to help you identify which people need what you have to offer and which people know other people who need what you have to offer.  Do you have a system for following up with people you meet after you’ve spent your time and money at a networking event?  Do you know what you’ve sent to whom and when?  Do you have a stack of cards on your desk that you promise yourself you’ll call but somehow you never have time to call?  Do you know what to say when you pick up the phone?  You need a system so that follow up is a breeze and you can delegate the follow up to someone else when the time is right.

Not getting personal, professional, interactive or memorable enough in your marketing/website

Do you have a website?  Does it make you money every month?  Your website needs to perform certain functions and if it doesn’t, you’re likely missing money that could be going into your bank account.  Do you know what functions the website should be performing?  If not, go to the top of my website right now and sign up to receive the list.  It’s free, I don’t keep these things a secret! 

Talking too much about what you do to prospects

Your prospects do not care about the vehicle you use to get them what they want.  They do care about the transformation you provide for them.  They are wild about the transformation.  Tell them how much better their life will be once they invest in your program or service.  Typically, your prospect has a pain point or a problem that you are going to solve for them.  For instance, a leak in the roof.  They generally do not care how it will be repaired as long as they know that it will be done efficiently, for a fair price and you won’t leave a mess.  They do want to know that the leak is fixed, it won’t leak again and the roof will look nice afterwards.  That is the transformation they are looking for.

Not having clear and easy systems for what needs to get done, lead generation and sales processes too

Clear and easy systems help you to automate many of your time consuming and repetitive tasks.  If I had to think about when each of my prospects customers received a piece of email from me, my brain would quickly overflow.  It’s important to get the right systems in place and at the same time not have an overly complicated system that will not provide enough value for the amount of money you spend for it.  For example, let’s say you’re just starting out.  You have maybe 20 people on your current email list and you sell a $67 product.  Would it make sense for you to spend $197 a month on an email generation system?  Probably not.  You want to scale your systems to the appropriate size of your company. 

You get too busy to pay attention to important $ tasks

Are you so busy filling orders that you don’t have time to do your marketing each week?  As a result, you experience gaps in your cash flow.  You should never be the reason why your cash does not flow in your business.  You want to clear all obstacles between your customers wallet and your bank account.  Tracking your money is an important task so that everyday you know what your money goal is for the money and what you need to do to attain that goal.  You need to know which marketing efforts will yield how much money and when that money will appear in your bank account.  If you’re falling short, you should immediately know what needs to happen in order to meet your goals for the month.

You simply don’t know what you don’t know and haven’t invested time or money yet in finding out

While it is true that there is a lot of free information out on the internet, most beginning business owners do not know what to do to produce a given outcome in their business.  They try this and try that and while the information may be valuable it may be too advanced or not solve the right issue for what you have going on today.  The result of this is wasted time and effort.  You won’t find everything you need to know out on the internet for free even if you knew exactly what to look for.  That information is like precious gold nuggets and it is attained by investing in your self and your business.  When I invest in myself and my business, I push my beliefs and as a result I typically will take better notes and actually implement what is being taught.  By investing with my money and my time, I am committing to a program and the instructor is committed to me.  I experience breakthroughs that I normally would not have experienced by just looking for free information on the internet. 

Not hiring a coach

A coach is like the engineer for your business.  While it might be expensive to hire an engineer or coach, within a short period of time, they can look at your business and analyze exactly what you need to do to produce your desired outcome.  They are valuable just for their experience and knowledge.  They often have simplified the exact systems you need to a fill in the blanks form that can take years off effort and expense off of your learning curve.  I have studied with several coaches and I have done more and gone farther than I ever would have if I had not hired a coach.  Coaches work with a high caliber of student who has also invested in their business and because you share the common bond of the coach’s training it is much easier to create a joint venture partnership with your fellow classmates.  An experienced coach can also tell you what to concentrate on and what not to be concerned with which will provide you with a lot less drama and more calm, sleep filled nights.