The No. 1 Mistake Most Business Owners Make + How To Fix It
Here's the truth. Most people in the business world are trying to put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound that needs stitches. And they're wondering why it's not working. Well, we're talking about it! Today, I want to discuss the number one mistake I see most business owners make and how to avoid it.
How To Recognize The Symptoms Of Your Business Problems
So let’s address the elephant in the room and diagnose what is really going on here. Because the big problem is that most business owners are searching for short-term solutions to a longer-term or bigger problem.
So what the heck does that look like? It's realizing your marketing isn't working or maybe your sales aren't where they used to be, or where they need to be to cover the bills. And instead of digging deep and getting to the root and surfacing the core issues of the business, it's, oh, I'm going to take that course on hashtags. Or investing in a photographer because new photos are going to help me get more sales, right? Wrong.
Oftentimes, the symptoms we see in business are indications that something bigger is at play. I liken this to the health industry. If something is rotting, it goes much deeper. So maybe you have an internal issue. We see the surface stuff and our ability to solve it can only address the stuff on the surface. But what we need to deal with is what's going on inside.
Maybe it's a confidence thing. Maybe it's your relationship with money. Maybe you don't feel confident charging your worth, so you’re afraid to have that conversation with people. So you don't have that conversation with people.
A lot of times, Instagram is not the problem. Your messaging is not the problem. If you think your Instagram strategy isn't working, let’s really pull back all the layers, and ask these deeper questions of what is going on? Let’s get a better understanding of what the core problem is, and then we can solve it. Then we can find the appropriate solution.
Because maybe this problem needs open heart surgery. Or maybe this problem just needs some PT. Maybe you just need some guidance, and the ability to build a new muscle and some new systems in your business.
I think my goal with this episode today is for you to get the confidence in how to self-diagnose and recognize that maybe the solution you're looking for could help a little, but it’s probably not what you need right now. And that's okay.
Sometimes it looks like hiring a coach to help you unearth all of that. Sometimes it looks like taking a specific course to get clarity on that specific thing. If it’s a money mindset issue, maybe a money mindset course could be the solution. I'm not saying that your solution has to be a high-ticket item. It's important for you as a business owner to be aware of:
What the core problem is
What's the best solution for really solving that problem
Diagnosing What The Real Problem Is
So when I'm talking to business owners, a common thread I see is this short-term solution. When you're in the beginning stages of a business –meaning you just start cutting hair, you make product and you're at the maker’s market, and you're hoping a couple of people buy it just to see if there's interest in the thing– when you're in those early stages, you are looking for short term solutions. Why? Because you're just building the business. It’s like clay –you're molding it into what it's going to become as a business. It's too early to understand these long-term big problems because they don't exist yet.
In those early stages, you're just getting started in your business, you probably are taking those courses, you probably are listening to those webinars or YouTube channels or podcast episodes on specific things like how do I sell out markets? Should I host my website on Squarespace, Wix or whatever other platform exists? You probably are looking for those short-term solutions.
But I will argue there comes a time and place once you have proof of concept and in my opinion as a business owner, proof of concept is people pay for the thing beyond friends and family that I directly ask. Once you have someone refer someone to you, whether that is a product or service that you're selling them, you have proof of concept. Meaning, you have the proof that your thing solves a problem for people and that is when I would argue this shift gets to happen with your mindset.
Instead of trying to put band aids on these problems that are now becoming patterns, we have to be able to diagnose. Even if you don't know the solution, as a business owner, you have to be able to diagnose what is going on.
So then when you go look for solutions, you know what's right and what's not. Because here's the truth, people who help you as a business owner are selling to you, I'm selling to you. Instagram is selling to you. People on YouTube, that free webinar you're going to tomorrow, they're going to sell something to you. They think what they offer is the best ethically. Hopefully, they believe that in their bones. Most of us want to help people. We create content, courses, workshops, and coaching because we want to help people.
But at the end of the day, you're the only one who can decide what is best for you and what's not. That's the root of this episode. You as a business owner should walk away with an understanding of what you really need in your business and why. Maybe you don't know how to solve it, but you at least know who does. That's it.
Why Short-Term Thinking Doesn’t Work
So a question I think that is so important to be able to ask is why this short-term thinking is an issue. Here’s why. If the big picture long-term problem is sales, meaning you don't have enough consistent money coming in the door, then hyper fixating on your Pinterest strategy is not going to be enough. You may have some months where it works, you may have some months where it's costing more than it's creating for you.
But you're not going to have that awareness and that problem-solving ability if you don't first diagnose the core root problem, which is confidence and the way you communicate your offers, which is maybe you're not speaking to the right people.
We have to peel back the layers and all of that. There's no shortcut, there's no special secret sauce that is going to solve it for you. The first opportunity here is you identifying that is the problem. And then you know where your efforts can go.
A great example of this is actually my business. I am a business coach, I help service-based entrepreneurs scale their revenue, their reach, and their team. Beyond hosting this podcast, that's what I do for a living. It wasn't until the last year and a half that I had this aha moment, which is that I'm a salesperson. On top of all the other things, a big core function within my business is that I have to be the one to make sales. And I realized I didn't know how to sell. I would hide behind the Pinterest strategist, I would hide behind the Instagram and the Canva templates or a launch plan that I would follow to a tee. But I didn't understand how to sell.
I had to have a mindset shift of oh, that's an important function of my business. That gave me the clarity to know where I have weak spots that I can further develop. For me, instead of putting a band-aid over it, which is outsourcing –because I thought, I don't like social media, I'm just going to outsource it –I was searching for solutions before identifying the root cause, which is I don't know how to sell.
Once I understood that was the problem. I shifted my mindset, I shifted my intentions, the books that I bought, the podcasts that I listened to, the conversations I had, the questions I asked my mentors or people who are further down the road. Almost all of them center around sales and sales psychology, because I know it's something I need to master in my business.
That initial recognition that that was the core root problem has changed how I make business choices. Where am I going to hire a contractor? Are they going to do this for me or this for me? Or maybe I take a step back and recalibrate the launch plan. I have this laser focus in my business because I understand the root problems. I'm looking for long-term sustainable solutions.
Let me give you another example of this. Maybe a huge pain point for you is money. Because deep down you don't understand it. Instead of sitting down and trying to understand it in a way that makes sense in your brain, you have shame. You have guilt. You feel bad. You compare yourself to other people who went to college. Newsflash, I went to college and I still struggle with money stuff.
Now, I have built a system that works for me, but I would definitely not say I am a financial whiz by any means. But if the money stuff is so confusing for you that you outsource it to somebody else, and you have zero idea what's going on with the money –that outsourcing is not a long-term solution. At least, most of the time. Sometimes it can be. But if you are just completely handing off the keys to the car, and you don't know how much money is coming in, and you don't know how much money is going out, and you don't know how much your taxes will be. If you don't have your finger on the financial pulse, you are up for a rude awakening.
I have coached clients through this who have been on the other side of that. They have had full trust and financial professionals who did not do their job. Also, the business owner didn't know what questions to ask. So it becomes like a standoff in a Western film. And it led to some really expensive bills down the road. I don't want that to happen to you.
Recognizing What The Symptoms Look Like
So I want you to really take a good hard look at your business and I want you to get so great at diagnosing what's going on that you have the clarity on how to make decisions to get out of it. If you're in a place where you cannot see what is going on, I highly encourage you to talk to a professional or coach or somebody who has a deep understanding of business and maybe see if they can see stuff that you cannot see. So there's three things I believe will help you diagnose what's going on.
You have clients coming in the door, but you're not their boss. They're not your ideal people. They're hard to work with. They don't respect the boundaries you're enforcing. Another symptom could be you're posting on social media, and you're not getting any engagement from ideal people, but you're putting a lot of energy and effort into it consistently. Or you have no idea what your money situation is. You're burnt out. Those are symptoms. You have so many things on your plate that things are falling through the cracks. That's a symptom.
So I want you to look at the lay of the land of your business and identify some symptoms that are going on.
3 Questions To Gain Clarity On What Your Symptoms Are Telling You
Then go through these three specific questions to ask yourself that will help you get clarity on what those symptoms are telling you:
Do you know your why?
I'm a huge why person. Because at the end of the day, there's no one-size-fits-all business model. If there was, then my business wouldn't exist. There's no perfect way to do business. There's your way. And if you're looking for some perfect example of someone who's been there done that, that you can just copy paste and apply to your life, good luck!
Does that person have the same kind of personal relationship you have? Maybe you live on a hobby farm. That person probably doesn’t. Odds are, no perfect example exists because we're all individuals. And that's what's really cool. But that also means that we have to be able to discern what kind of support and solutions make sense and when they don't.
So the first question is, do you know your why? If you don't, pause here, and figure it out. In my opinion, the best way I found to do this is with Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why. His second book is Find Your Why. And it actually walks you through an exercise where someone sits across from you and helps you unearth your why and this is so important. In fact, that is actually something I walk all of my one on one clients through. It's the first thing we do. So I highly encourage you to do that.
Don’t just have your mission statement or my value statement. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about who you are at your core visceral level, like your default mode. When you're tested, when you're stressed, when you're overwhelmed, this part of you is just so deeply rooted that it's unwavering, regardless of the circumstances.
So you should know at a very deep level, what your WHY IS, and there's actually a specific way to set up that statement. I highly recommend you do the work to figure that out.
2. Do You Know Your Values?
Question number two is, do you know your values? So, I also walk a lot of people through this exercise, too. A question I often get is, are we talking about personal or business values? If you're a business owner, it's both because you are your business. Especially if you are a small business owner. If you are a CEO of a company, maybe that's a different thing.
In this specific example, if you started a business and you're still involved in the business, your values bleed in. Whether it's personal or professional, it's all the same in the values. All that really means is this is the stuff that really matters the most to me. If you don't know your why or your values, then you don't know how to diagnose your problems.
Because how do you know where you're going? How do you know what optimal health is for your business and what optimal goal achievement looks like if you don't know where you are going? The where is dictated by your why and by your values. So identify your why, identify your values.
I'm a huge fan of Brene Brown's process. She has a whole list of words, processes of elimination, pick the ones that resonate most, and be able to explain what they mean to you. But use those tools to then go back to those symptoms and be like, Okay, wow, my symptoms exist, because I'm burnt out. I'm burnt out because everything I do conflicts with my values. How powerful does that sound? How amazing would it be to know you have problems in your business but now know why those problems are there?
For me, knowing my why is to inspire people to take action so that they live an authentic life with purpose. That's my why statement. My values are authenticity, connection and growth. So, anything I do should honor those two things.
Anytime I'm feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, resentful, frustrated, lost, it's because one of those is out of alignment. And then I can go back and dissect where in my business that is happening. From there, knowing where that is happening, I can say, Oh, I don't feel gross. I'm struggling here because I don't know how to sell. And that's not a growth mindset.
So, I need to change my mindset. And then I needed to go seek the tools to be better. For me, that’s listening to podcasts, reading books, stretching my mind, learning new things, seeking out mentorship. If I'm not doing that, I feel like I'm pouring from an empty cup. So, that has to become a huge part of my overall business health. And that becomes a tool.
Technically, I could find that solution for free. But so often we think we can just pay for someone to solve these things because it's easier to do that than to diagnose what's really going on.
For the businesses who struggled financially or have quite a bit of revenue coming in but have professionals managing the financial stuff. Maybe there was so much shame, guilt, lack of understanding there that instead of being like, Hey, okay, I need to figure out this stuff in a way that makes sense in my mind or I need to find a professional who can translate for me or teach me to understand this stuff –it was set it and forget it. Eventually, it was forgotten, and it ended up with a giant bill coming due that they had to pay. So that stuff doesn't just go away.
If you love to have other people do stuff for you and outsource, you're able to delegate well, but the stuff doesn't go away. You still should have some kind of pulse on what is going on in your business.
Social media is a big one people outsource. You just don't really like Instagram, so you have someone do it for you. What really is going on is that person is lost. They don't know their why. They just know they're trying to sell stuff. And it's not working. Instead of figuring out where that gap is within themselves, they're hoping someone else can solve it for them.
3. How Do You Solve The Problem?
So if you're feeling small and vulnerable, and tiny and frustrated, I get you. And that's why I brought you to this point, because we had to get to this point to realize something is not working.
Now, how the heck do we fix it? I think the most important thing to remember is once these problems unearth themselves, you dig and you find the root cause to understand where the rot is happening in your business. What's really cool is you actually have what you need to move forward.
I mentioned my issue with sales and the gap between my skill set and what needed to happen. I found peace in the fact that, oh my gosh, my issue isn't my branding colors. My issue isn't my business name or my offer name. My issue isn't how much I am or am not posting in stories. My issue is that I don't know how to sell stuff. Then it became okay, how can I learn how to sell stuff?
There's a level of peace and confidence when you realize this solution can be that simple and when you know exactly what to look for, you can go out in the world and find it. Instead of other people coming to you and telling you what you need, you go to them and you say, this is what I need. I think that flip is so incredibly important.
One of the core things I help business owners do is have that confidence in decision making. A lot of that stems from being able to see what's going wrong and create solutions that are really going to treat and overcome the illness that is within your business.
3 Ways To Start Solving Your Core Problem
I have a couple more things I want you to keep in mind as you're thinking through this stuff and starting to think of solutions. Once you identify those core problems, there's not going to be one magic pill that will solve the day.
I am still figuring out sales and I do it wrong. Sometimes I hop on calls, and I come in too strong and I've turned people off. There are times when I've oversold, where I sell myself, they say yes, and for some reason, I keep talking. So, for me, this is a nerve, this is raw, this is vulnerable. This is something I'm still actively working on. But I know how to get better. And I know what I need to get better. For me,in sales specifically, it's more conversations. That's it. More practice. Again, I don't have to pay someone to do that for me. I don't need a coach to come here and cheer me on. I just need to do it. And I am doing it. And that's where my energy is going. And I have the confidence. I know that's the best place for me to be in my business right now. And I'm okay with that.
I'm treating these problems that are long-term big problems by building this brand new muscle that will solve it for the long term. Because if I eventually do outsource sales within my business, for instance, I still need to lead that person, I still need to know exactly who their ideal client is, and is not. I still need to know, hey, that's where the breakdown happened in the sales call. Here's what we could do next time. I still have to lead. So I have to know. Does that make sense?
Understand That Consistency Is Key – But It’s Often Overlooked
A couple things to keep in mind as you're walking through this journey. There's something to be said about time and repetition and getting in the reps. About the time that goes by where you stay in it. There's probably things in your business that your tendency is to just tear it down, rebuild something else, tear it down, and pivot over here. When maybe the best thing you can do is just do that thing again. And again. Maybe one person buys and maybe two people buy, then maybe someone asked for a refund, then maybe ten people buy.
But time starts to give you the data and the knowing and the understanding of what is really actually going on here. And then you can make better decisions in the future. So point number one is this consistency is king.
In this digital age, we're obsessed with finding all these short-term solutions. We hear a lot about scalability. I need to build something that's scalable or evergreen. Well, there's a time and place where that makes a lot of sense, believe me. When we diagnose that root core problem, what's really happening is we don't know how to sell the thing we're already doing.
So instead of trying to sell the thing and getting rejected, we're like, Well, if we have other things in place, it softens the blow. Because if it's not a yes for this, maybe it’s a yes for that. Maybe I can funnel them into a freebie or a smaller ticket or a group offer. And that might not be what your business needs right now.
But this knowing only comes from understanding that core root problem. It takes your why and your values and puts it together to create this roadmap of here's where I'm at, here's where I want to go. This is a gap and here's how I fill that gap.
So don't be afraid to just be consistent. Maybe you identify this core problem. Maybe you launched something for the first time, and no one bought it. Your short-term solution brain is like. Well, I’ve launched the wrong thing. Gotta create something else. Maybe a bigger, deeper question is, what if I launched the exact same thing or the exact same strategy, and just did it again? That might be the solution for your business. And that only becomes obvious once you diagnose the core root problem. So extra bonus points.
Number one is this consistency is king. The same goes for your messaging. I'm just going to throw this in while we're here. I have been posting content consistently. I've recorded a podcast every single week since I've started this podcast and I post about it. So, at minimum, I post once a week. I have recently re engaged my social media strategy, but I've been planting seeds and posting for years.
Only now people are recognizing or quoting back things that I say in public. People know me because of the content I'm posting. I know there's this whole dilemma of giving yourself grace and boundaries. In some circumstances, I understand that if you are an extreme burnout, there are times to pause. Especially content creation which can just feel so heavy and intensive.
However, there is definitely something to be said about consistency when it comes to marketing your stuff. I have worked with someone who built their entire marketing business offline. But she was consistent in her in-person messaging. She never wavered on how she introduced herself, how she networks, how she communicates, what she does, how she solves problems for people. So consistency can look like a lot of different things. But consistency is a core solution to what could be your long-term problem, which is that you’re just not consistent. So start there.
Understand That No Is Coming To Save You
Point number two, when we're thinking of solving these core big problems, understand that no one is coming to save you. Which should be both terrifying, but also really empowering. Because it means you are going to be okay. You're fine. You can find the solution. It doesn't mean you know how to do it. But it means that you don't need to go searching for other people to solve things for you. That becomes overwhelming when you don't know what you're solving for.
Imagine going to the grocery store with a list of exactly what you need. You know what brands, what size, what quantities. How easy would that experience be? Now imagine going to the grocery store with no list. That's what it's like being a business owner. We have to create the list. And we can only create the list when we know what the problems are and what the symptoms are telling us. If nothing else, I hope that's what you take away from this because this is incredibly powerful and important.
When you recognize that no one is going to come in and be like, Oh my gosh, Kelsey, your business is awesome. I want to help you get to a million dollars. You need to do XYZ things. I'm going to support you and do everything for you. You might as well not have a business anymore. You might as well just go work for somebody else.
So if no one is coming to save you, you get to save you. Which means you need to know why you’re doing the thing in the first place. And you get to do it in a way that makes sense and aligns with you and where you want to go. And that's really powerful. But you have to be the one to do it.
Understand That You Have Everything You Need Within You
So, if no one is saving you, consistency is king, then the last point I have to make for you is you have all you need within you to solve this problem. You just might not know how yet. And that's okay.
But if you go through this exercise, and you really sit and look at the symptoms, and you pull the thread and you see the common themes, and you go bigger and deeper within your business, then you will know what you need to solve it.
Just like I realized that sales was a gap in my business –and going in searching for sales, podcasts, sales books, sales, mentors, masterminds with sales, it became a lot less intimidating. When I knew what I was looking for, I was able to go to the grocery store with my shopping list complete and only buy the things that I needed.
We live in a world where we're being sold to all the time. We're constantly being encouraged to buy, buy, buy, buy, and we want to get out of the pain we're in. We know we're not happy with where we're at right now. So we're looking for all these solutions. But if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, it makes it really hard to know when you've found it.
Say you'd go out there and you buy that course on a whim or because it's on sale, or it's from someone you really respect. If that's the wrong solution for right now, you're gonna resent it. You're gonna say, hey, that person actually didn't help me very much. Or maybe you don't log in at all. Or maybe you don't finish the program. Or maybe you don't implement any of the things that you've learned. Your disappointment level is going to be so much more likely if you don't know what you're looking for in the first place. And that's on you.
No one can tell you what core problems exist in your business and why you want to solve them, except for you. People can hold up the mirror and identify some things and probably make a good guess. I'm a pretty intuitive person and I would say I'm pretty good at that. But you have to recognize what is going wrong in your business so you can find the appropriate right solutions.
So, to wrap up, the number one mistake I see people make is they put Band-Aid over a bullet wound when sometimes stitches are in order. I don't want you to do that in your business. I encourage you to just carve out some time, look at the symptoms, look where they're connected, look at what bigger picture is really coming to light. Be honest with yourself, and then seek solutions that diagnose and treat those long-term, core problems.
I promise your business will be more robust as you continue to grow and scale and add people to your team, add locations, add other offers to the mix. You're gonna have a really solid, stable foundation that is crucial to those next levels of growth that you are craving in your business.
I hope this was valuable for you. I can't wait to hear what you do with your business diagnoses and how you find creative long lasting solutions to scale to the heavens and wherever you want to take your business.
If you're feeling a little vulnerable from this, then I would invite you to come on my next mastermind retreat. It's happening in Baja, Mexico. I'm co hosting it with my friend Karina, who's a mental performance coach and yoga teacher. It's all about this kind of stuff. The stuff within you that it takes for you to lead your business because whether you're a team of one or 100. This is the stuff that you for sure need to attend to and understand at a deep level in order to really grow to that next level, whatever that next level may be for you.
So if that sounds like a potentially appropriate solution to those long-term problems we identified, I would love for you to apply to join us. The best place to do that is trueadventurecollective.com/business-retreat. I would absolutely love to have you there.