5 Bad Business Habits You Need to Stop Immediately
Being the cheapest isn’t the answer. Don’t look for the lowest price but the best solution.
We discovered the five business-killing mistakes by making them. Most business owners start with effort and a lot of beginner’s luck but somehow businesses don’t work when you aren’t prepared with the necessary skills. When did the frustration finally end? When we eliminated these five bad business habits. Eliminated them one by one through painstaking effort. Some of them were hard to break. With each bad habit we shed, our prospects got brighter.
You don’t have to change overnight. If you see yourself in more than one of these habits, pick one of them to break and then move on to the next one. However long it takes, these are my picks for the five bad business habits you need to stop immediately. Don’t worry about the order of things, just start with one today.
Here’s a list of bad business habits you need to stop immediately.
1. Stop setting price traps for yourself
Is it a free trial or half off? It guides students in the opposite direction – charges a higher price. When you go low on price, you set a trap for your business to fall into. Charging a high price takes confidence, a belief in the value of your solution versus a competitor’s solution.
How do you get a person to buy from you instead of your competitor? Charge less, right? Aspiring entrepreneurs who lack that confidence often get satisfied by charging a lower price. They hope the low price will peel off some market share because in their heart of hearts they don’t believe they deserve that market share. The pricing could be so low that it doesn’t justify their time. I get it. It sounds good. Especially in the business-to-business arena, most buyers aren’t looking for the lowest possible price — they are looking for the best possible solution.
2. Stop creating websites and business cards before you make a sale
You could set a clock with the predictability of this conversation I have with my students: “So you’re going into business. Have you made a sale?” “Well, I need to make a website and business cards first. Get a phone system setup. YouTube Channel, Instagram and the works. Oh and a nice logo!”
Nope. Nope, nope, nope. That doesn’t fly with me. My response is “Stop designing your business card and make a sale. You don’t even know if you have a market fit yet. If you don’t fit, that business card is just a waste of time, money and trees.”
I used to think that worked somehow. I cringe to think of the number of websites I designed, business cards I ordered, fliers I printed, explainer videos I made, blogs I wrote – time, money and effort. I had skipped the step of confirming that the market wanted what I was trying to sell. How much did it impact me when I finally dropped this habit? My agency became a seven-figure company before I ever launched a website for it.
3. Stop building the product or service before you make a sale
This goes hand-in-hand with the above. To avoid going out and trying to make a sale, they say “Well, the product isn’t ready yet. I want to get it just right.” My answer: “Why are you building a product you haven’t sold yet? If no one has bought it, how do you know if anyone will even want it?” Sell a product before you build it? Many people can’t wrap their heads around that. It sounds dishonest.
4. Stop building your business on the cheap
You have to remember this important formula. Most buyers don’t look for the lowest price. They look for the best and most cost-effective solution. For your business to thrive, you need to do it this way too. Aspiring entrepreneurs often come from a position of scarcity. They may not have the confidence to make a sale and if your brand is put together on the cheap-cheap products, slipshod marketing, etc.
Why should anyone buy from you? Think about it. It doesn’t only apply to physical things you can touch or see. Make it a point of paying my remote employees more than the market rate for their labor. I want a very loyal team that does excellent work. Enables me to charge premium prices and attract loyal clients.
5. Stop building the business around you
You can still be a part of your biz growth by acting as quality control for that last 20%. You can still be on hand to act as quality control for that 20%. You can hire someone else to perform quality control. The hardest habit to break is to slip into the mindset that nobody can wear the hats as you do. Never make that mistake. Design every aspect of your business with the expectation that someone else will take over the role.
If you build your business around you — if you don’t design your business to the point where you are replaceable — then it will own you. It will fall apart if you decide to take a vacation or face a family emergency. You really aren’t a business owner — you are self-employed, a different kind of rat race.
Bad habits need to go. The sooner you do, the sooner you prosper. If you build your business around you and if you don’t design it to the point where you are replaceable – then it will own you. It may fall apart if you need to take a vacation or face a family emergency but hear us out. With our comprehensive cloud contact center omnichannel solution, we could help you balance work-life balance while still being ahead of your competitors.
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Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/387715
