If you’ve ever been green with envy looking at your business competitors or neighbouring businesses wondering why they seem to be flying … why they seem to have a ton of time off while you spend your time working 90 hour weeks in your business, identifying and fixing one or more of these business mistakes may be the answer.

The other night I was sitting on my deck enjoying a few glasses of Shiraz with a business consultant friend of mine, and we soon got talking about our Business Transformation program. Anyway, one thing led to another and we started discussing the key mistakes that business owners make when it comes to having a wildly successful business that runs without them. My friend then mentioned a list he had developed -  I thought I’d share that list here with you.

1. Not knowing what business you are in
2. No clear direction
3. No definite goals
4. Not having a Vision and Mission statement
5. Not measuring the conversion rate (leads to sales ratio)
6. One avenue of lead generation only
7. Not knowing how effective your advertising is
8. No time management system
9. Not having a Business Plan
10. Not having a Marketing Plan
11. Only having one product or service
12. Business Owner is locked in - taking all responsibility for everything in the business
13. Business Owner sells most out of all the team
14. Business Owner does not have an exit strategy
15. Not having the right team members
16. Team not motivated
17. No training programme
18. No operational systems
19. No job titles, job descriptions, key performance indicators
20. Not having a recruitment system
21. No regular team meetings
22. Not having an identifiable uniqueness that differentiates you from your competitors
23. Never tested new prices
24. No system of introducing other products / services to existing customers
25. Not knowing your right target market
26. No market research done or customer feedback received
27. Meaningless business name to the marketplace
28. No strong company image being widely presented
29. Not making enough income from the business
30. Working long hours
31. No system of ongoing customer communication
32. No database
33. Database not suitable for customer relationship building
34. Newsletter (they may have) not regular
35. Owner lost the passion for the business - working for everyone else in the business and not feeling that the business offers a good return for the work being put in
36. No system of gaining referrals
37. No system of bringing customers back
38. No monitoring of average dollar sale
39. No system of follow up of inquiries
40. No system of daily cash flow reporting
41. No regular monitoring of overheads
42. No budgeting, sales forecasting, target setting

(List courtesy of Paul Condren)

Interesting list, isn’t it! Some of these factors are more significant than others when it comes to maximising profitability and maximising results. And some will be more significant for certain industries than others. Through the Transformationists Network we identify the challenges that are holding your business back the most and work closely with you to transform your results in these areas and more.

To give you a sense of what are the key transformation factors for your business, we’re offering a complimentary Business Transformation Audit (worth $475) where we determine the transformation blueprint for your business. To qualify for this free audit your annual revenue must exceed $500,000 and you will have been in business for 12 months or more. To arrange your free session, just email info @ words that sell dot com dot au or call us on 07 3353 1107.