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Re: Business Owners: Biggest Mistake You've Made? Sep 12, 2008 3:14 PM
Great idea for a thread, Milleisen. Of course, there are many different kinds of "mistakes."
The mistakes that taught me, personally, the most valuable lessons over the years were all related to negotiating. It's not so much that I did a lot of things "wrong," but rather that other people (landlords, vendors, clients) had a lot more knowledge and experience at it than I did early on.
The most costly "rookie" mistakes I made when initially starting out all involved spending money without first asking if, how, and how much it would directly impact revenue. For example, if I knew I could sell 40 units, I'd plan to order 50 -- and then the vendor would offer a great discount on 100, so I'd spend money to buy 100 units without having thought through if and how I could sell 100. I made that mistake the first two years on all kinds of things from office space to advertising. Today, we don't spend a dollar without assessing exactly what the projected return on that expenditure will be.
I think the biggest mistake I
still make sometimes is getting so busy and focused on executing the CURRENT thing that I don't put enough thought and effort into how we're going to market the NEXT thing. That tends to create a revenue "roller coaster" -- i.e., we experience a dip between one major project winding down and the next one ramping up. While I can teach a graduate course or something if I need to cover an income gap, that's not the best way to run a business (and that's my biggest self-criticism as an owner and manager).
