http://youtu.be/zvk_DB0iuuU

10 Reasons small companies stay small

Lack of business planning

This is a simple fix, create a business plan.  Even if you have been doing business for a while, creating a business plan will help your identify exactly what you need to do.  You can do a simple exercise and write down what your business looks like in 1 year, 2 years and 5 years.

Lack of online marketing

We live in a digital world. . . well most consumers do.  We are in a digital age and if you are not harnessing the power of a well designed web page and social media, you are mission valuable leads.  Being online is about strategy and planning.  Do you have a marketing plan?  Does it include digital technology?  If not, fix your digital marketing and meet your potential customers where they are.

Bad project management skills

There are a lot of good entrepreneurs who cannot manage their way out of a bag.  If you are more of a doer than a planner, hire someone to help you.  It is important that you bring your team along with you as your business grows.

Lack of structure and organization

Make sure everyone in your organization knows their roles. If you don’t have an organization chart showing what roles everyone has, create one.  It is valuable to see these things in reality.  As a matter of fact, at the beginning there may be seventeen roles and all of them have ‘you’ as the one doing those things.  This gives you a picture of where you can start to grow your business.

Poor judgment in business diversification

Do what you do so well people want to buy from you.  Many businesses get caught up doing so many things that they miss their original purpose for being a business.  I have seen it time and time again.  An entrepreneur sees a great opportunity and throws it in his business without thinking about how it fits his business.  Don’t do that.

Keep the main focus of your business strong.  If you want to add something, make sure it fits into what you are doing.  As a matter of fact, it may be easier to have someone else do that same thing as you partner up with them to help each of your businesses grow.  It is called cross promotion and is a valuable tool for growth.

Too much technical training, not enough sales training

If you know what you are doing, then keep doing it.  You don’t need to relearn it over and over.  Take time in your training to learn to sell what you are doing. Everyone is a sales person, so learn to develop those skills.  Even if you hire a sales team, you need to know how to sell so you can lead them and help them develop.

Fear of failure

As entrepreneurs, we take calculated risks.  We are not afraid of doing what other people can’t or won’t.  However, there is an underlying fear sometimes that creeps in and tells us that we will not succeed.  Embrace those moments of doubt and conquer those fears.  It may be the resistance that you feel that will sling shot you to the next level of success.

Inability to scale project management

I have said it before and will say it again, you must have proper systems in place.  You must have systems that work even if you are not there.  These systems will help you when it comes time to scale your business to the next level.  If you cannot put on paper what your systems are, then you don’t have systems. Actually, if you don’t have them written on paper, you don’t have systems.

Fear of overhead expenses

Remember, you are investing in your business growth.  I have heard so many entrepreneurs say that it is too expensive to grow. That is backward thinking.  IF you want to grow, it will cost money.  As an entrepreneur, you must calculate the rewards on the other side of an expense.  That is where your business plan comes into play.  You can see the need for a particular expense to launch you to the next level of success.

Hitting the panic button too late

As an entrepreneur, you must be proactive.  You must plan ahead for the good and the bad.  You don’t want to be putting out fires; you want to be avoiding fires. The better you can ‘see’ ahead of you, the better you can prepare.

A simple motto to live by:

Expect the best, but prepare for the worst.

What other things have you seen that keeps businesses from growing? Share with us on Youtube or GooglePlus.