7 Common Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
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If you’re a female small business owner, this blog post is for you.
Below I share some of the common mistakes I see small business owners make, that impact success in their businesses.
Let’s dive in.
1. Your Mailing List (Or Lack Of)
This is one of the biggest gaps I see in small businesses.
Too many female business owners don’t understand the value of a mailing list, or perhaps don’t know how to set one up, or simply can’t be bothered with the effort building a mailing list takes.
Your mailing list is an asset you own. It’s somewhere that creates a safety net for your business, whilst giving you the opportunity to build community, and sell more of your products/services.
I sell more products to my mailing list than anywhere else.
If you don’t have a list, you’re leaving money on the table. That’s a mistake.
The more quickly you can build a mailing list, and then engage and nurture the people on your list, the greater the sales you’ll make in your business.
If you’re in business to make lots of money – that money is sits right inside your list.
I have ladies in my 40k community (a place where ladies are working towards a variety of 40k goals in their businesses – including 40k revenue), and many have goals to grow their list to reach 40k income from their lists alone.
That’s not as difficult as it sounds. Here’s an example:
- 1000 people on your list – just 20% (200) buy £200 worth of products from you = £40,000.
- 2000 people on your list – just 20% (400) buy £100 worth of products from you = £40,000.
- 3000 people on your list – just 20% (600) buy £67 worth of products from you = £40,000.
- 4000 people on your list – just 20% (800) buy £50 worth of products from you = £40,000.
- 5000 people on your list – just 20% (1000) buy £40 worth of products from you = £40,000.
£40,000 in regular income can be life changing for many small business owners.
And your mailing list can be the place you make that happen, meaning you don’t have to fight as hard to try and get sales through social (becoming more and more impossible), or have to rely solely on traffic to your website or market place platform for sales.
Growing a mailing list and selling to that list is one of the core strategies ladies inside my 40k Club are working towards. You can get involved and join my FREE 40k Club Community below.
Too many female entrepreneurs focus too much of their attention on social media, trying to build loyal followers who will buy from them there.
As we see it becoming harder and harder to get reach and engagement on social, you can find yourself spending too many hours invested in those spaces for little return.
If you REALLY want to build a loyal, paying community of people – the place that beats social is a good mailing list.
If you need more information about mailing lists, you can find plenty of tips in these blog posts:
How To Drive People To Your Mailing List From Social
Why You Need A Mailing List In Your Small Business
Where To Start A Mailing List For Free For Your Small Business
2. Finding Your Own Message
You have to understand who your audience is, what their wants and needs are, and the solutions you can provide to them.
When you have this information, you can craft your own messages, in your own unique voice, to speak to your audience in a way that really resonates with them.
I see many female business owners show up and throw products out, hoping something will stick, without truly knowing who those products help and the solutions they provide.
Try this exercise:
- Spend some time figuring out who your audience is. Their demographics and psychographics. Age, gender, location, likes, dislikes, where they hang out, what their interests are, family dynamics, income, spending habits etc..
Metrics across your spaces will provide you with some of this information. Researching your competitor’s audiences and finding groups and forums where your audience hangs out will also provide you with information.
Running polls and quizzes with your audience can help you find this information.
Start to build a picture of who it is you’re serving.
The more deeply you can learn about your audience, the easier it will be to craft messages that speak to them directly.
You need to make your audience feel that you know them inside and out. This will help them to connect to you more quickly and easily. - Start to create a list of all the pain points, issues, challenges of your audience, and the solutions they’re looking for.
This is essential.
When you know this information, you can craft content marketing messages to speak to your audience in a way that really resonates with them.
When you have this information, you then consider the products you can introduce that provide great outcomes for the challenges and issues your audience has, and the solutions they’re looking for. - Start to make sure you’re speaking directly to your audience, addressing their issues, challenges, and solutions they’re looking for. Show how your products provide a beneficial outcome so that you audience starts to see you are the person and business for them.
You have to be able to connect what you sell directly to your audience.
If you can’t do this, your audience will not feel any inclination to make a purchase from you.
Your messaging is key.
Understanding your audience deeply is the route to great messaging.
3.Showing Up Without Burning Out
I see too many female business owners going all in online, thinking they have to grind 24/7 in order to beat everyone else to the top.
I’ve seen small business owners walk away from their businesses because they’ve burnt out so badly.
I’ve seen big accounts who’ve tried to keep up with posting 5 times a day on their social accounts disappear for 3-6 months because they hit a brick wall. HARD.
You can’t run a long term, successful business that way.
Nor do you need to.
You need time away from your business. The best way to achieve this is to have a schedule you work to every week, where you factor in time for your business, and also time away from your business.
It’s really easy to go all in and keep pushing hard – especially when you’re desperate for results that you perhaps aren’t yet achieving.
It’s not worth wrecking your health for your business.
Time away is as important as time in your business.
You should be able to take your breaks without feeling any sort of guilt that you should be working during those times.
4.Boundaries
If you don’t set boundaries for your business, other people will set those boundaries for you.
Don’t think that a customer or client won’t text/call/message you at 10pm at night if you don’t make it clear that you only operate between 10am and 4pm.
You shouldn’t be afraid to set boundaries in your business that help you create a business that works for you.
Be clear when you’re going to be available for business. Be clear about the standards you have and the way you operate.
Don’t allow your audience to dictate to you the way in which you run and manage your business.
It’s your business, your way. Stay in control.
5. Tell Your Story
Stop talking about your products and services all the time, and instead start telling stories that you can morph into the products and services you sell.
There’s a big difference here.
Humans are hard wired to listen to stories.
If you can start to weave stories into your business messaging, and gently lead your audience on a journey towards the products and services you sell through story telling, you’ll sell more.
Stories can include the journey of your business, your behind the scenes, customer success stories (a great one to leverage your expertise), stories about pretty much anything you want, as long as you can connect those stories to who you are, what you do, how you help, and what you sell.
In an email marketing campaign I sent out to my list many years ago, I told a story about how I took my mum with me to buy a rubber dress from a sex shop (I kid you not – true story! I wore that dress out nightclubbing for many years in my youth!)
You would think that story would have nothing to do with business, nor would it resonate with my audience. But I connected that story to my business.
It turned out to be one of the most successful emails I have ever sent.
Tell stories. Lots of stories. Your audience will connect with you more.
6. Giving Value
How much value are you giving to your customers and clients?
Many times business owners feel they have to compete on price to make a sale.
Not so.
If you can provide huge value through the products you sell, you will never have to worry about competing on price.
Value does not mean charging the lowest price – far from it.
Doing that will destroy your business. Value comes in all sorts of other shapes and sizes.
How quickly you respond to enquiries, whether you send surprise shock and awe packs to your most important customers, if you guarantee to ship within 24 hours of an order, if you go the extra mile – in whatever form that mile takes.
Extra bonuses you can add to a product when someone makes a purchase – something that has value, but does not affect the profit you make on a sale.
Extra bonuses could be video trainings, pdf checklists and guides, access to free private communities, care and/or wear instructions.
There are many ways to increase the value of your products by adding bonuses that make the end customer feel like they’re getting more value from you, than if they go to a competitor.
Value sells. Consider how you can add more value to the products you’re selling.
I’ve had more than one of the ladies in my community mention to me that the reason they stick around, is because I’m there for them more than any other coach they’ve ever had.
That’s one way I add value.
How can you stand out from your competitors? How can you add enough value to your products that it is an easy decision for your audience to buy from you?
7. Be A Decent Business Owner
It never ceases to amaze me how many people feel it’s perfectly ok to bring a REALLY bad attitude to the online space.
It’s almost like it’s a privilege they’re entitled to.
Uh. No.
Because there’s this big space between us in person, and the internet, it seems that people think they have the right to act up and be less than nice human beings online.
That’s simply not ok.
If you’re working hard to grow a successful small business in the online space, come to that journey with a good moral compass.
Don’t waste time engaging in some of the outrageous arguments and bitch-slapping that happens online, take a moral stand, be a decent human, and walk on by the nastiness.
You have more important things to do with your time.
And if anyone brings their bad vibe to your space, rather than entering into a battle to try and take them down or prove a point, block them and move on.
Conclusion
There are some takeaways to consider in the tips above, to help make sure you’re not making these mistakes in your business.
Paying attention to each of the seven tips outlined above, will help you grow a more successful, more valuable business online.
And if you’re really struggling to figure out how to get to any level of success in your small business, why not come and join other ladies inside my free 40k Club.
I’m there helping to support those ladies to reach a wide range of 40k goals, that create hugely successful businesses.
You’re welcome to become our next 40k member!
Here’s the link to join – no cost. Hope to see you there!
Catch you soon!
Jenny 😁
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