10 Ways You Might Be Sabotaging Your Business

It’s normal to want our businesses to grow without having to hustle to get them to start growing. In the beginning it takes a lot more energy to get a business up and running and off the ground than it does to keep it going and growing once it is more established. Sometimes we think we’re doing the right things, but instead, we are inadvertently sabotaging our businesses. 

Here are some common mistakes that could be sabotaging your business. I see these all the time, and I’ve made almost every one of these mistakes myself. 

1. Not being consistent. It’s not easy to show up, and keep showing up, even when you feel invisible, no one is talking to you, and you’re not making the progress you need to be making in your business. You just have to keep showing up consistently.

2. Not building relationships. It almost doesn’t matter what your business is, you simply have to build relationships. 

3. Trying to copy someone else. You can and should learn from others, but at the end of the day, your business is yours. You need to make it your own and have your own brand of authenticity. The more your business reflects you and your personality, the better it will do. 

4. Spending money on every bright, new shiny object. You can easily spend your way into a hole and take on way more debt than you intended. There might be a fantastic tool or program that comes along. So you sign up and pay a hefty amount for it. Then you don’t do the course work, and you find yourself even further behind. Resist the urge to sign up for new programs or courses or products unless you really need them for your business.

5. Trying to do too much. There really are only 24 hours in a day. It takes time to build your business and to build social media platforms and a following. It has taken me many months to grow my Facebook Group to its current size. It took me a year of consistent, focused effort to add 16,000 Twitter followers. You have to choose the things that you can do in a reasonable number of hours in a day. I have yet to figure out how to bend the space-time continuum or how to add more hours to a day. 

6. Not taking care of yourself. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of your business or your family. Sleep, food, exercise, and other forms of self care are absolutely mandatory for the health of a business. 

7. Not putting in the time. If you want a business to grow, you have to put in the time. Even if it’s only a few hours a week, you have to dedicate that time to your business. 

8. Not doing what you say you’re going to do. This one is the kiss of death. If you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, you are going to develop a lousy reputation. 

9. Focusing on too many different things. If you start splitting your attention 23 different ways, it’s going to be hard to build anything. I see people who so many times start picking up new projects out the wazoo. That is just a recipe for failure, because if you keep losing focus, you’re never going to gain traction.

10. Not having a good support network. Being an entrepreneur can be very hard and very lonely. If you don’t take the time to cultivate a really good support network, you will struggle. There is an African proverb that is particularly relevant here: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”