As an entrepreneur or a business person, you are called to serve only customers. Most times business owners do some silly mistakes that are very unhealthy for business; here are six silly mistakes business owners do that is dangerous in the business terrain.
- Poor Branding scope
Branding in business covers a whole lot of areas but I will be talking about business name here, I laugh out loud most times when I hear or see most business name, I would most times ask myself did this people consulted anyone before choosing such business name. Most of them would try to sound very religious even with their business by naming their business according to their religious beliefs, just this most I finished consuming a bread and I decided to go through the bread’s wrapper and what I found was “God’s will Bread”, lol what a joke! Products that are meant for the entire public consumption should be 100% free from all religious attachments except your target consumers are of a particular religious group e.g. You want to manufacture an olive oil for only the Christian faith you name such product “By His Grace Olive oil”. Every business owner whose product is consumed by the entire public should be smart enough to remove all forms of religious content in their businesses so as to make their business appeal to all irrespective of their customer’s beliefs.
- Impatient
Most business owners want to set up a business today and start making huge profits the next month, hell no! Business is no Abracadabra; it takes time for people to start noticing your business and a longer time for consumers to trust your business. For you not to wait too long for sales to come, you then need to apply an aggressive means of marketing e.g. If your kind of business is not out rightly new in the market, you will have to give consumers a good reason to leave Product A for your own new product B, this was the technique the Nigerian telecommunication giant Glo used to break into the Nigeria market with the introduction of per second billing rate. If you have done a proper analysis of a business, started proper operations, the next thing to employ is patience.
- Poor Customer Service
I walked into an International commercial bank recently to transact a business; I was like wow is this bank really situated in Nigeria? Though I wasn’t properly dressed from the gate the security personnel treated me like a VIP, when I entered the banking hall I asked for the banks teller from the security man standing in-between the exit and entrance of the bank and he politely showed me where to pick one. I observed that there was not a single seat in the banking hall, which simply means that they are not willing to keep their customers waiting and to be precise I transacted my business with the bank in an amazing time of less than 5mins. With that experience, I promised myself to open an account with them before the end of this year. That banks amazing customer care service has won them an additional customer, trust me I have transacted with other banks here in a Nigeria that I ended up having aches in my legs for standing too long. This is not only applicable to banks alone but all business ventures, always please yours customers like you are trying to woo Cinderella, make them feel more important than they feel they are and they will be stocked to your business like Ant and Sugar.
- Going into Business for the wrong purpose
It is true that the purpose of every business man is to make profit but beyond making profit you must that purpose that would still make you stay in business even if the ascertained profit is not coming forth. Never go into business because you saw “Chinedu” making profit with his business and you quickly decided to go into the same business as ‘Chinedu”, you never might know “Chinedu’s” drive for the business. One thing is certain you will never beat the original business idea owner, instead of following “Chinedu’s” idea search and create your own purpose of business and become an healthy competitor like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
- Small Business Vision
When starting up a business on of the first thing that should come into your mind is seeking for ways to enlarge and remain in business, most businesses owned by Africans die immediately the business owner dies. I could mention countless businesses that went bankrupt because of the demise of the business owner; the business owner’s family would fight and fight for the business assets till they end up squandering the business assets and bankrupting the business. Have we asked ourselves why all these foreign brands standing the test of time even when the business owner is long dead and gone? The number one reason is partnership; those foreign businesses are not 100% owned by the business initiator, the profit and loss is shared among group of business like minds with the larger share belonging to the business owner or initiator. Instead your business remaining a one man business build it to a certain appreciable level that will attract investors to come in, be smart to sell out some percent of your company shares with you having the larger share so they won’t have an absolute control over your business. This would enable your business to grow bigger, better and more efficient because other investor’s interest is attached to the business. The business will also stand a better chance to stand the test of time even after the owner’s demise.
- Focus more on product improvement than brand improvement
If your branding is outweighs your product your business story would look like a very beautiful lady with an appalling character. A perfect example of what I’m talking about is the two giant cocoa beverages manufacturing company in Nigeria. One is more concentrated in branding and advert but giving us chocolate dust for chocolate drink while the other is more focus on the product improvement than branding and hereby giving us a more delicious chocolate drink, the truth is that the later sells better than the former. Improve more on your product quality and it would speak for itself, I didn’t ask us to ignore branding totally because it is also a vital area in business.
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