Ever witness an interaction between a parent and child and see what the problem is?

You’re able to read what’s really going on in seconds, but hesitate to speak up. Because you know you might get a response like, “Mind your own business,” or “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” or maybe worse.

This is exactly what it feels like when working for a business owner who is making costly mistakes. Your team, consultants and freelancers often see the issues clearly, and yet, hesitate to speak up. Because they know their feedback may be unwanted and may even threaten their roles.

As a freelance copywriter, I’ve witnessed my share of doozies when it comes to the way business owners operate. Don’t get me wrong. Most of my clients are AMAZING. But there have been a few that drove me CRAZY! Because they did things like…

• Always moving the target so we never knew when we succeeded
• Not giving the team what we needed to succeed
• Requiring an hour long meeting when it could have been a two minute email

If you’re a freelancer or consultant, you can probably relate. And sure, some of these crazy making behaviors are part of the job when working with highly creative and driven business owners.

But there are some things business owners do that aren’t just crazy. They’re COSTLY!

The Three Biggest Mistakes Business Owners Make

There are certain patterns and behaviors, that when repeated, throw a business off course. I look for these “signs” early on now. Because these three costly mistakes consistently derail business objectives, profits and the motivation of the team.

 

Costly Mistake #1: You allow people with no experience to make decisions for your company.

Maybe you’ve developed a close relationship with your graphic designer and she frequently offers marketing advice during meetings that sounds great, but doesn’t produce results? You value her beautiful graphics but you don’t want to hurt the friendship by saying no to her ideas, even though using them will hurt your bottom line. Any time you lose the boundary between business and friendship, you set yourself and your company up for failure. Never rely on a graphics designer for marketing advice unless that person has proven themselves worthy of the position by producing measurable results for other companies.

 

Costly Mistake #2: You don’t take ownership when things fail, regardless of the reason.

Let’s face it – most of your team wants you to succeed, in fact, they’re counting on it. They rely on you for an income, so if things aren’t getting done (and you’re the one holding everything up), do you take ownership for your failed communication or for your missing deliverables? For instance, if someone who works for you is waiting for your decision before they can do their job, do you make it a priority to get that information to them in a timely manner? If you’re not, are you willing and able to see that you might be the problem in your business, and more importantly, fix that problem?

 

Costly Mistake #3: You micromanage every aspect of the business and don’t know how to prioritize.

This one causes utter mayhem in any business. The most successful business owners don’t run the business. They hire people who are great at what they do to do the parts they struggle with, especially in terms of day to day business operations. As a business owner, you have the vision and as such, your job is to share the vision with your team so the team can make that vision a reality. If you’re thinking to yourself as you read this, “But they don’t know what I want, so I have to always explain it to them in detail,” you definitely need to do some soul searching in terms of who you have on staff and how to find someone to manage your staff in a more productive manner.

If you’re a business owner who’s not seeing the results you want, ask yourself or your team if you’re guilty of one of these costly mistakes. If you don’t have the right people in place, you’ll constantly struggle in business – both in terms of revenue and sustainability. To succeed in business, you have to be accountable, hire the right people and trust your people to do what you’ve hired them to do.

And if your a freelancer or consultant, how do you handle working with a business owner who is derailing their business?