So many of them began their business so they could be “the boss” and work their own hours. What happens is their lack of experience turns this around on them and they become slaves to their businesses.

Having started many successful businesses myself, as well as coaching and mentoring other new business owners, I understand more than most just how easy it is to become “stuck” and become trapped in bad habits. It’s easy to say “work smarter, not harder” – but what does that mean exactly? Most small business owners don’t have a clue.

So here are just eight of some of the more common mistakes small business owners make, so you can avoid them and if you are already trapped, what you can do about them:

1. They don’t set clear goals. Would you drive off on a journey, wanting to get to destination X, and not bother to take a road map and use it? You could get lost. You could end up anywhere. You could drive around in circles and run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere! You must have a clear understanding of where you want your business to go, with a few ideas of some of the ways you can reach that goal. You must create a solid vision and set clear and attainable targets to give you and your business direction. This acts as your “road map”.

2. They confuse being busy with being successful. It’s a fine line. Many successful people are quite busy, but then again, many new starters are also busy and failing to reach their desired levels of success. To an extent, working long hours in a business that really does require our personal input is part and parcel of being a successful business owner, however, could you say you are successful if all you have is work and the rest of your life is non-existent? I don’t call that successful. Success is having a profitable business AND having and enjoying personal and financial freedoms to spend time with our loved ones and friends and do the things we really enjoy in life.

3. Poor Advertising. Many small business owners are not natural ‘marketers’ and that is one of their biggest downfalls. You must identify your target market and address your marketing efforts directly to them and your marketing message MUST address their needs, not yours. You must consistently target your market with the marketing message that answers their question of “what’s in it for me?” You don’t tell them how important YOU are or how long you’ve been in business or how you’re looking for new clients. You identify their problems and and tell them how you can solve them AND you make them take action to contact you promptly.

4. Not targeting their true “target market”. Some people think if you market to everybody on the planet, sooner or later, one of them has to respond. It’s a big planet – your message will just get lost in the “noise” and confusion of all the other millions of ads out there doing the same thing to the same people. To be successful, your marketing efforts MUST focus on your own target market – you must know who they are, their demographics, how they think, behave, where they hang out, and how you can get your message to them. Without this knowledge, your marketing dollar is being wasted, however, when you are in contact with your true target market, you are in contact with people who really do want and need your services!

5. Get trapped into wanting new customers. There’s no doubt that every business needs new customers, however, to focus your attention on only bringing in new customers all the time is not only tiring, it’s very expensive. Realize that you have already invested time and money in getting the clients you already have – if you let them “walk”, think of the wastage. Think of your existing customers as an investment, and you will see a higher return on this investment if you can keep them coming back giving you return business. By working on your existing customers and giving them excellent service, you also increase word of mouth referrals – which is free marketing for your business.

6. Working IN their business instead of ON their business. This is a common trap for small business owners who tend to do too much themselves. If you can’t afford full time employees, consider part time and virtual assistants (if the nature of your business can utilize that type of service.) Consider this – if you are the one managing your diary, organizing your own appointments, doing your own research, doing the books, operating the cash register, ordering the stock, doing the payroll, managing the employees, opening and closing the shop every day… who is looking at the big picture and making decisions that will grow the business? Who is doing your marketing and advertising research? Not you, obviously, because you’re too busy doing everything else. This is a nasty trap to fall into and you can get out of it by systemizing your business and hiring people who can do many of those mundane tasks for you. This will provide a business that can run itself – freeing up that time so you can work ON your business instead of IN it.

7. Hiring the wrong people. Anybody can fall into the trap of hiring the wrong person for the job, but if you take note of their ability and experience as it relates to the job they’re applying for and you check their references, you’ll have a better chance of hiring the right person. There are many online resources that provide assistance in helping small businesses find the right employees, offering interview hints, and so on. Take advantage of these free resources and it will save you a lot of wasted time and money if you choose the wrong person. You can’t focus on what you need to be doing if your mind is constantly worrying about what your employees might be doing wrong and you have to waste time constantly supervising their efforts.

8. Wasting money on bad marketing. If it didn’t work the first time, why would you waste money repeating it a second or third time? If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and you need to fix it before using it again, otherwise your marketing money is just going down the drain and you may as well not bother. A typical example is placing an ad in your local community newspaper. Maybe you ran it for a couple of weeks and had zero response. That means it doesn’t work, so don’t keep running it. It might just be something simple as needing to change the heading, or rewording the body, or placing it under a different category. You must track your advertising expenses and measure the results you get from each attempt so you can assess the real effectiveness of each effort. Only then will you know if a particular ad is worth repeating or needs reworking.

Finally, never give up. Many of my clients have been total novices making all of the above mistakes, and today are the owners of thriving small businesses, enjoying a healthy work/life balance. This is how I know you can do it, too.

Terri Levine is the author of over a dozen books on Business Success, Marketing, Selling and Coaching, mentor to some of the world’s most successful business owners and sales professionals, featured in over 50 International News Publications, advisor to General Electric, seen regularly on television shows around the world. www.marketingwithTerriLevine.com. www.LevineBusinessCoaching.com.

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With the inception of the web, the thinking that drove real-world advertising shifted to the online space. There was a mix of flashy and intelligent banner ads. But just as Doyle Dane Bernbach shifted attitudes in advertising in the 1960s, we are in a transitional stage in marketing. A new evolution in thinking is emerging in online marketing. It’s not about how flashy your banner ad can be. It’s not about how loud you can yell. It’s about how interesting and remarkable you are. It’s not about saying you’re remarkable. With the influx of peer-to-peer networks, it’s not about you anymore. It’s the value consumers place on your product or brand.

The new thinking speaks to the importance of consumers. It’s about being relevant and speaking to the intelligence of your audience. What does a hair growth product matter to a 14 year-old girl browsing Facebook? It’s white noise. However, what if you offered that 14 year-old girl your product. Given her connections in the social community, it might be worthwhile.

Key Concepts:

Reciprocity and participation – Have an active relationship with others in the community. If you added an extra zero and a reader calls you out on it, thank them. Intelligent user comments are trying to make your product better. Or, if you’re on Digg and someone asks you to digg something for them, do it. When the time comes you can then call on them to reciprocate. Or, if you’re promoting a new hair gel, go to hair enthusiast bloggers and give them the product to try. Let them make the claims for you. If you’re gel really does help curl hair, it’s much more powerful if a blogger says it than your marketing department.

Ethics — Remember the Working Families for Wal-Mart? Supposedly an organization of Wal-Mart enthusiasts. There are legions of such people, but the Working Families for Wal-Mart were paid to write good things about the national grocery chain. Deceptive? Of course and Wal-Mart paid dearly. Paul Gillin discusses the firestorm of controversy from bloggers and ultimately, tarnished Wal-Marts online reputation in his book, the New Influencer. Honesty is a highly valued commodity in the blogosphere. A company that can recognize mistakes and promptly fix them is one with high merit in the digital world.

Timeliness – Twitter trends come and go. Kanye West was a trending topic for several days and then disappeared until the next kerfuffle. Will Plate, from Command N, discusses the importance of timeliness in the blogosphere. Though Twitter trending topics are hard to predict, there are annual events that are foreseeable. Think about December holidays. It’s the time for giving and charity. Why not create a giving tree on your website, where users can donate time or money for a charity?

Talking to the Blogosphere

As The New Influencers discusses in detail, blogs are an essential marketing tool. There are over 184 million bloggers worldwide. Why? It’s inexpensive, accessible, interactive and engaging. Not only can your company launch a blog, but you can tap into key influencers in the blogosphere to talk about your product. Prioritize which bloggers make the top 10 or 20 “most popular” list. Take example from…

To read more about digital marketing, go to Sparxoo, a digital marketing, branding and business development blog.

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Bring Ideas To The Table, Solve Problems

Sales is quite easy, though most don’t make it out to be. At the end of the day, sales is about solving the customer’s problems and doing so by offering unique perspectives as to how to skin the cat.

More often than not, when a company calls a vendor, they don’t know what they want nor what they can get. Many small business owners answer the phone expecting the client to know exactly what they want.

Then, when the client doesn’t know how to exactly respond, they are often angered as to the lack of knowledge the individual has.

This is one way that you can separate yourself from the other vendors when selling a new customer. Walk them through the sale. Hold their hand; make their life easier.

Moreover, because the the client often doesn’t have an understanding of what they want that is at once comprehensive and impartially arrived at, offer creative solutions as to how to solve their problem.

Get this routine down pat and you can rest assured that you have a solid client for life.

It’s Simple – Customer Service Wins

Jack Welch put it perfectly by saying that people often make business more complex than it should be. Our economic system revolves around money passing from one set of hands to another.

There is no excuse as to why the entrepreneur should not always be giving updates to the client. When it comes to winning business, it is not always the most intelligent or biggest that wins, it is the one that shows the client that they care.

Welch said that if you are not speaking to your client, someone else is. Welcome interaction from your client. Make sure to email them daily with an update and keep all lines of communication open between both parties. The moment these lines close is the same moment that they’re writing your competition a check.

You Don’t Know The Client’s Needs Until You Ask

The downfall of the small business owner lies with the “sales pitch.” Never sell. Instead, ask questions.

Too many entrepreneurs answer the phone and, off the bat, go into a generic, boring sales pitch that covers nothing pertinent to the client. You never know why someone is calling.

There is no particular rhyme or reason as to why people buy; don’t assume that this is another cookie-cutter case. Show interest in the client’s needs and do your absolute best to tailor your product or service.

You never know until you ask. There are no bad questions; however, there are a ton of bad pitches.

The Goldman Sachs Ego

There is a reason why Goldman Sachs continuously stays on top. Many believe that it is because the firm has a reputation for recruiting the most talented people. The recruiting is only a small part of the equation.

It is the attitude that they are the best that keeps revenue flowing into their bank account. It is the attitude that they are the best that has investors lining up to give them money.

Even though you don’t have the name that Goldman possesses, when selling a new customer have that air of arrogance that you are the best. For the next few sales calls, act as if you don’t need the business.

The realization that people are going to want to give you their business when you don’t need it will rapidly set in. The desperate sales professional never wins.

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