Having been in business for nearly 9 years, I have found that this quote from Benjamin Franklin holds true today:
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Let’s face it, as an entrepreneur and a business owner, it can be hard to stay focused on what will move your business forward. But by not planning, things will fall through the cracks, affecting both your business growth and profits.
So what are some of the common profit killing mistakes you may be making in your business? And how can you avoid them? Let’s take a look.
Mistake #1 – Haphazard Marketing
One of the most common profit killing mistakes is haphazard marketing. When it comes to marketing and social media, consistency is KEY. Publishing one Facebook post or a couple of tweets once in awhile isn’t enough.
Being inconsistent in your marketing, ignoring your email list (and I would like to apologize to my list right now as I am very guilty of this too!) and letting your social media go stale are all detrimental to your business.
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The old adage, “out of site, out of mind”, is so true and possibly more so in today’s fast-paced, social media driven environment. Consistent marketing, with a recognized consistent brand, images and content schedule, helps maintain that consistency by building awareness and trust of your business.
If you don’t set up and keep with a consistent marketing plan, people will forget your name, your business, why they are on your email list, or why they follow you on social media. And just like personal relationships, these forgotten people will need to be wooed and won over again and again.
Mistake #2 – Lack of Automation
Some businesses make the mistake of staying stuck in old ways of doing business. Are you still making phone calls to confirm appointments? Are you playing phone tag back and forth with clients? Still scheduling your social media posts one at a time?
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In today’s business world, there is a wide variety of tools that can help you automate your business.
Tools like automated calendar systems (Acuity or Calendly) can alleviate all the back-and-forth phone calls with clients to set up a discovery call, or confirm appointments. These tools can also allow your client to schedule a time that best fits their schedule with the click of a button. Talk about a time saver!
Your social media marketing can also be automated with platforms like Hootsuite and MeetEdgar. Planning out a few weeks of content and using an automated scheduler can help ensure your content is consistently published.
Utilizing these tools will help prevent inconsistent marketing and free up valuable time in your business. While some of these automation tools can cost money (there are a lot of free tools to look at as well), compared to the cost of your time (or an employee’s) to complete these tasks manually, the ROI is well worth it.
Mistake # 3 – Poor Branding or Messaging
Branding is more than just your logo and business colors. Branding is your overall image. Branding includes your company’s mission, your vision statement, and your unique selling point.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, defines brand simply as
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Your brand is your ambassador for your business.
As mentioned in Mistake #1 above, consistency is KEY. Consistency in branding is critical to your business. Being consistent in your branding builds awareness and trust.
Customers are significantly more likely (71% more likely according to Global Banking and Finance) to purchase from a brand they trust. Additionally, customers are more likely to purchase from a brand recognized for their consistent image, message, and content schedule.
One important way to guarantee brand consistency is to develop and implement a set of brand guidelines. These guidelines should include things such as a your company mission statement, a description of your company tone and voice, your logo and brand colors (including hex codes), and social media examples. The more specific your guidelines are, the more consistent your brand marketing will be, which will help generate more revenue for your business.
Mistake #4 – Poor Money Management
Ok, you all know this topic is my jam!
How would you answer these questions?
- Do you have specific processes in place for paying your monthly invoices?
- What about systems for your bookkeeping?
- Do you know what your monthly income vs expenses looks like?
- Are you confident when tax time comes around with how much profit you made last quarter or last year?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, NOW is the time to start thinking about them. Poor money management will also lead to other profit killing mistakes if not addressed.
Businesses that are positioned for growth have good money management solutions in place. From creating a budget to solid processes for handling your monthly expenses, to knowing your numbers before tax time comes. Let’s face it, if you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, how you manage your business finances can (and often does) affect your personal finances.
Mistake #5 – Resisting Reinvesting in Your Business
Reinvesting in your business is necessary for growth.
An easy way to start reinvesting in your business is keeping extra profits in your business and using them to invest in new software, technology or training, or hire a virtual assistant to help with marketing and administrative tasks.
Each of these reinvestments can help your business run more efficiently, more consistently, and give you more time to focus on serving your customers, growing your business, and doing what you got into business to do!
Another great way to invest in your business is to hire a business coach. A business coach can help in various ways:
- offer solutions and ideas to make your marketing more consistent and effective
- being knowledgeable about the latest technology that can help you automate while sticking within your budget
- ask the right questions that help you drill down to those core principles that drive your business thus strengthening your brand
- help you create a budget for your business along with solid processes for handling your monthly expenses
As you can see, a business coach can help you get these profit killing mistakes rectified and offer more solutions for your growth!
