This blog entry looks at seven classic errors made time and again by businesspeople, especially new business owners. Crucial to avoiding many of them is knowing when to seek expert help from outsiders such as Meridian Accounting & Business Services. Don’t let your operation suffer or fail by ignoring the small business mistakes below – or our advice on how they can be avoided!

Insufficient Planning/Research

It’s one thing to have an idea for a company and quite another to map out its development, stage by stage. If you don’t have a plan leading you towards a specific goal, it can be easy to go wrong. The same applies when you haven’t fully researched the market or your likely competitors. A good way of avoiding this most fundamental of small business mistakes is to discuss your idea with a firm such as Meridian, who will have successfully guided similar ventures in the past, as well as possessing a broad knowledge of the marketplace.

Inadequate or Outdated Resources

The best will in the world won’t save your enterprise if its resources are either insufficient or “past their use-by date”. We’re not saying you have to be an early adopter of every piece of new tech in your industry, as that comes with its own risks. However, thinking you will survive using equipment, materials and/or methods that are below the standard of your competitors is a fatal error. (You’ll find other small business tips often mention technology for this reason.)

Keeping Poor Records

Right from the get-go, businesses generate a ton of information. If you have it correctly recorded and up to date, it’s an incredibly important tool for gauging the health of the store/factory/office, etc. and making decisions about what to do next. Neglect it and you’re essentially flying blind. Fortunately, accounting and tax can be outsourced to professionals such as Meridian, who will ensure it remains 100% accurate and current.

Ignoring the Marketing Side of Things

This blunder is related to the first two frequently occurring small business mistakes on our list, as effective marketing involves both research and utilising modern tech (e.g. SMS campaigns). In short, you can have truly fantastic products/services, but if nobody knows about them, their quality is irrelevant.

Inability to Adjust “On the Fly”

No set of small business tips would be complete without a reminder that it’s essential to be flexible in order to cope with unforeseen events – both positive and negative. This is where the small business advice of a trusted partner like Meridian can prove invaluable, as they explain – based on a wealth of previous experience – how your operation can adapt to changing circumstances.

Trying to Do it All Yourself

One of the age-old small business mistakes is trying to handle every task yourself, whether out of pride or in an attempt to save money. Besides the fact you risk exhausting yourself or merely “robbing Peter to pay Paul” (attending to Area A while forgetting about Area B), there are valid reasons so many firms rely on specialists for everything from security to cleaning: because specialists have knowledge/skills/certification they don’t and are much more efficient and therefore ultimately cheaper in the long run. This is definitely the case for business advice, accounting and tax assistance.

Expanding too fast

Allow us to conclude these points with the eternally sound small business advice not to overreach yourself. For example, rushing into a purchase that, while objectively a fine investment for the company, severely compromises your cashflow. Again, a friendly local business advisor will stop you making these missteps.

For Assistance Planning and Running Your Small Business…

Contact Meridian Accounting & Business Services today! We’ve been providing clients across Central Queensland with first-class business- and finance-related services for more than 15 years. Our focus is on making the complex easy to understand, while delivering personally tailored support to help our customers achieve their goals. You can find contact info as well as an online enquiry form here.