Mistakes and Profitable Business Ideas

Here’s an interesting notion: Do you realize that there are mistakes you can make at various stages of your business’ growth that can be slowly killing even your most profitable business ideas for months or even years if you don’t watch for them?

Well, these mistakes do exist and they are not just reserved for the rookie companies. Many working businesses, including those you might think are “successful” because they’ve been around for 10+ years, are often still making them… and are possibly losing a lot of money and/or wasting a lot of time in the process.

Although some of these big and sneaky mistakes seem aimed more at service type companies, they really do fit the bill for almost any type of industry be that offline or online. I’ve had a look into this and over the next few days I’m going to do my best to show you some examples with these business building tips.

Business Building Tip 1

Underestimating Project/Service Time-

This is a big one and it pertains to service companies as well as companies that sell a product. This is a service company’s bread and butter. If you don’t estimate your time to perform each and every service in your repertoire, you will get burned and there is little you can do about it but bite the bullet and learn from it.

If yours is an offline service company then the best way to estimate time is to do it once yourself or watch your best employee do the task and then throw in a little fudge factor on top of it.

For product companies, both offline and online, time becomes an issue with logistics so be aware!

Watch out for more business building tips and mistakes that can kill your profitable business ideas.

Christmas is almost here and the end of the year is well in truly in sight by now. I hope that you've all had a very successful year so far. Here are some tips on what to do between now and the end of the year to get that extra business feasibility boost for next year.

You've often seen me write about the necessity to plan ahead. None of us really plan to fail but it's failing to plan that can bring a lot of grief.

Re-visit your Business Goals
Did you accomplish what you had planned at the beginning of the year? If so, congratulations but don't forget to set new goals for the coming year. It has been a difficult year for a lot of new businesses and all goals have not necessarily been reached. Don't let that discourage you. Have a close look at why you didn't achieve what you had set out to do and make up an adjusted plan for next year. It does not have to be anything complex. A simple business plan will often be a good basis to work from. Not having one at all however is disaster waiting to happen. If you're not sure how to go about it, consider doing a small business course in the coming year.

Decide on your marketing strategies
There have been a lot of changes during the year. One of the most important ones is the use of Social Media by business owners. If you have a website, does it need updating to include iPhone access? Do you have your customers' cell phone details so you can send them a text message when you want to remind them about a special offer that you have going? These are just a couple of examples of marketing strategies that should be high on your priority list if you don't want to miss out on the best business opportunities.

Send a Season's Greeting to your customers.
This greeting should be in the form of a "Thank You" note for your customers' loyalty. You could consider enclosing a special offer in the form of a discount coupon, gift certificate or whatever is suitable for your business. With the festive season close there will be a lot of people looking for good Christmas gifts suggestions.

Plan to avoid business stress
A large number of small business owners are working under pressure almost 24/7. If this applies to you, have a close look at what you can do better next year. Too much pressure will lead to stress and that will affect not only you but everyone around you. A lot of business failures happen because the owners simply could no longer take the stress. So what can you do to run your business efficiently and avoid too much stress at the same time? It's really not all that difficult. The first thing to do is to minimize any disturbing influences. Set one or two short periods per day aside to read your emails and respond. Don't drip feed them all day. Mute your phone and let it go to voice mail when you are dealing with a customer. Look at any other tasks that can be a disruption and see what you can schedule to be done in a few short burst during the day.

Just a few of these tips implemented at the start of the new year can be a major boost to your Business Feasibility.