I uncovered an interesting article from a guy who had a small business and he listed the top five things he would change if he could do it over.
The first one is in sure that any staff has the skills, enthusiasm and motivation to help you succeed. He also would’ve planned ahead so he didn’t have to scramble and except anyone when things got busy. The second thing he would change is that he wouldn’t have been tempted to pursue every potential source of revenue that crossed his path. This need to generate revenue sidetracked him, preventing him from serving his true target market and taking his business to the next level.
If he had his time over again he wouldn’t have underestimated his start up costs. He grossly underestimated the amount of capital he needed. He accurately estimated rent, equipment, inventory, living expenses and legal expenses, but he seriously underestimated marketing, insurance, utilities and the add-on costs on top of wages for staff. He needed a much bigger cash reserve than he had. He also tried to keep control of everything himself without delegating. This meant he was bogged down in detail and lost perspective on the big picture of the business and the customers. And finally, he let the business consume his life, leading to serious stress in his personal life and being always stressed and tired when working, making him far less objective than he needed to be.