43 - The Biggest Mistakes When Building A Business

Thanks for joining us for this week’s episode of the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. The journey of building and scaling a business is filled with a few dangerous pitfalls that can spell doom for your business. However, it’s certainly possible to get ahead of those problems and prepare yourself and the work you do so you can grow rapidly, and in a healthy way.    The first challenge you may have to overcome is identifying busy work vs. productive work. Are you actually accomplishing tasks, or are you occupying yourself with things that could wait? Constantly reorganizing and being in a state of perpetual adjusting simply won’t pay the bills. Focus on what you need to first, otherwise you can create a bottleneck and slow the entire process of growth.    Another mistake that you may encounter is simply networking too much. Overnetworking can happen easily, but it’s important to recognize that this too can become busywork. Consider if the networking you’re doing is moving the needle. Don’t get sucked into situations where you are providing more than you’re getting from things like networking groups, etc.   Another thing--don’t expect your employees to love your business the same way you do. It’s your baby, it’s your blood, sweat, and tears. They may not understand that. Communicate with them the importance of the work they're doing and it’ll go smoothly.   Make sure you’re not spending money without realizing it. Check your accounts regularly and ensure that you know where your money is going. Avoid paying subscriptions you no longer use and disallow things to slip through the cracks.    Try not to use your personal cell phone for business work. This opens a pandora’s box of problems that blur the line between your home and work life.    Your business needs to be able to run without you there. Don’t wait for an accident or emergency to test it. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Allow and trust your team to perform the tasks your business needs to survive at the same quality you would if you were there. Key Takeaways:   Identify busy work vs. productive work. Are you actually accomplishing tasks, or are you occupying yourself with things that could wait?  don’t expect your employees to love your business the same way you do. It’s your baby, it’s your blood, sweat, and tears. They may not understand that. Your business needs to be able to run without you there. Don’t wait for an accident or emergency to test it. Delegate, delegate, delegate.