My Mistakes in Business

I have been running my business since 2009. During that time, I made a lot of mistakes that prevented growth. What could I have done better?

My biggest mistake was being satisfied with the number of clients I had at the time. With more than a dozen domestic and foreign clients, I focused on serving them instead of acquiring more. When some started to leave (e.g., to cheaper competitors), I began to miss new customers. The result was that I had to downsize.

Customers have started looking for cheaper solutions

The second problem I overlooked was that clients did not expect very good quality. I, accustomed to doing projects at the right quality, always wanted to hand over my work in perfect condition. Unfortunately, the industry I’m in has been going downhill for many years, and clients completely don’t care about high quality. Unfortunately, it costs money to maintain quality, so customers have started looking for cheaper solutions (mainly in Asian markets, such as India).

I, through my perfectionism, unfortunately lost many customers.

Lack of willingness to take risks

Another problem I noticed years later was the lack of willingness to take risks during a period of good prosperity. At that time, having a lot of work and a rather large team of experts, I focused on current tasks instead of trying to develop the company in new areas. At that time I lacked some courage, as well as time.

I spent a lot of my time developing my completely different business, unrelated to the main one. After a few years, I closed it down, because I didn’t see any opportunities for growth.

I didn’t want to fire people

My mistake was also in getting attached to the people who worked for me. The moment the first signs of crisis appeared. And I, instead of firing some people, decided to keep them with the hope that the situation would turn around and more orders would appear. The result? I lost a lot of money, and the situation did not improve.

At one point in my business, I also made another mistake. I let the company live its life and focused on other areas. The result was that I overlooked some of the problems that had arisen in the meantime.

No marketing activities in the business

I think it was also a mistake to let go of marketing activities that could have helped raise the company’s profile. It seemed to me that those customers looking for a company like mine would find me easily. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I realized this too late.

Read also: Why relationships with client are so important?

As you can see, I made many mistakes with my company that had in impact also on my life. Some cost me the loss of customers forever. But I managed to learn from my failures and today I approach things completely differently. Will this bring me success and profits in the future? Will there be only tales of profits?