14 Most Crucial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

I have known passionate and business-driven individuals who started with much humility of spirit and awareness in their heart what they will be pursuing, only to wake up one day deep in debt and dragged to the sewers by the very business that, in the beginning, gave them so much reason to aim high and contribute much.

Most business owners get so overwhelmed by the details of their day to day that they lose the ability to ask why they began their business in the first place.

Here are the 14 crucial mistakes entrepreneurs make. If you find yourself in any such situation or mindset, catch yourself fast, save what is left, before it is too late.

Mistake #1
Hiring smooth-talking individuals with no business background or management sense, then making them CFO’s and COO’s who are empowered to dictate the business direction with their stupendous rhetoric and idiosyncrasies.

Mistake #2
Using investors’ money as bonus package for the officers who either found or ‘convinced’ the investors to put their stake in the business.

Mistake #3
Thinking that treating the office as a home environment, hiring relatives and even children of employees, and allowing occasional insubordination promote closer and more productive relations.

Mistake #4
Assuming that the presence of an accountant or an accounting team will solve all discrepancies and even suddenly make the company stop losing money.

Mistake #5
Dismissing complacency and slovenly work by reassuring and motivating erring employees, instead of correcting and reprimanding them.

Mistake #6
Giving the mentality of full ownership to any senior employee who mistakes it for counselling and cheer leading efforts without regard for corporate goals and profitability.

Mistake #7
Leaving the decision making to employees who seem responsible when it comes to number crunching and meeting management but actually have no accountability because they no clue about the overall direction of the business.

Mistake #8
Looking for opportunities and contacts in networking events where majority of attendees are unemployed individuals who recently crashed their previous employer’s business.

Mistake #9
Looking for business partners in networking events that are attended by entrepreneurs who are on their Nth failed business venture within the last 6 months.

Mistake #10
Hiring the wrong people and making them go to excessive training in the hope that they will change.

Mistake #11
Undervaluing the strong hires by not training them properly nor stretching them enough through mentoring programs or coaching exposure.

Mistake #12
Failing to let go of the wrong people and making the right ones pay for their mistake once the business closes down.

Mistake #13
Equating employees’ sense of happiness and show of loyalty with their level of competence and quality of performance.

Mistake #14
Living in the delusion that with all of the above mistakes happening, board meetings and potential funds from potential investors will save the business.

Stop the bleeding. Don’t just stuff it with more mistakes packaged as policies and procedures that you yourself can no longer connect to the corporate direction. And stop with the hiring of new employees who will think for you despite their lack of knowledge of the business. Stop as well with the hiring of the lower-salaried assistants to take on the tasks of the assistants who are not able to do any assisting.

Reward meaningful and productive efforts. Reprimand irrelevant, slovenly work. Reacquaint yourself with the vision that made you so passionate about your business in the first place.

Finally, now that you have experienced first-hand the danger of letting very confident individuals think for you despite their lack of business sense and people management skills, start getting back on your thinking track, will you? Go back to the basics. Even if you have to continue with the same number of employees you started your business with. One. You. Or maybe not to that extent. You know better. At least that is my hopeful assumption after you’ve read this post and validated your reflections.

Don’t worry, if you do not have the heart to let go of your biggest expense in the form of your appointed top executives and the equally indifferent individuals on the team, they will at least continue thinking of numerous ways to spend potential income and even reasons to have day-long meetings that can fill your schedule in the next 6 months if you can make it that far.

Why would they do that? Because you have to be kept busy while they work out their contingency plan and meet up with potential new employers in between their lunch time and coffee breaks.

Sheila Viesca / www.talkshop.ph  / 0917 877 588