One of the quickest way to self-sabotage your business is to attempt to grow without a plan or goals. Most businesses aren’t accidents—that’s to say they don’t happen without intentionality or direction. Of course, there are a few other factors that self-sabotage your business success. How do you avoid or overcome them? It’s simple, really—you look at the root cause and take the steps to prevent it from happening to you.

Tip #1: Have a well-thought-out, evolving plan.

A strategic plan provides an overview of your strategy and goals. It ensures the realization of your vision for the future. It plays an essential role in staying grounded and focused. When done right, it assists you in overcoming some of your self-sabotaging behaviors, like confidence (both over and lack of), failure to control your costs, unstructured expansion and more.

The key is to take time to create your plan, and go deep with developing the core business elements needed for success.

For the most successful small businesses, the strategic plan is an ever-evolving document. They frequently and regularly reevaluate and amend it to reflect the current happenings within their business.

The sky is the limit, especially when aiming for manageable and reachable stages.

Tip #2: Research tools needed to operate efficiently and effectively.

Knowledge is power. The more you stay up-to-date with the business tools you’ll need to operate efficiently, the better chance you have of preventing traps of self-sabotage traps. 

Not only are tools continually changing, the needs of your clients, and their expectations, fluctuate. Keeping your current clients engaged while attracting new ones is your primary goal. Do you know how to balance that delicate equation? 

What are buyers looking for currently? How do they generally prefer to buy services such as yours? Webinars, Google hangouts, and workshops within your business community keep you connected to what’s trending and how it can be utilized to stay relevant as you grow your business. (Plus, we would be amiss if we didn’t invite you to subscribe to our blog to keep you informed.)

Tip #3: Communicate and collaborate.

Everyone who works with your business play a vital role in your business becoming and maintaining success. Feedback is crucial to ensure all parties involved with your business, including service providers, are aligned with your goals. 

• Make sure you are openly willing to communicate. Role modeling starts with you.
• Provide opportunities for everyone to share ideas, accomplishments, and experiences.
• Be transparent with your expectations. Set clear guidelines and goals. 
• Let your team know what is working, and direct them to continue those behaviors.
• Host team-building efforts. Not everything needs to be about business—it can also be about strengthening the teams within it.
• Allow others to air grievances safely to promote a collaborative, product work environment.

Tip #4: Accept guidance.

Many have trudged the road to successful business practices before you. There are also those who make it their mission to guide companies in the right direction. Trust me, you don’t need to know everything there is to know about running a successful business before it actually happens. Learn from those around you. 

Invest before it’s too late! Engaging a business coach is one of the soundest business activities to preempt problems and stop self-sabotage. 

Are you ready to overcome self-sabotaging behaviors and grow your business? 

It’s sad, but true: small businesses self-sabotage with startling regularity. Any number of factors play into a business failing to grow into its true potential. From a failure of morale to a failure of methods and logistics, more often than not, the inhibition comes from honest good intentions meeting bad ideas. How might your small business growth be subject to self-sabotage? It’s frightening easier than one thinks. 

1. Lack of Confidence. Perhaps the simplest form of self-sabotage that inhibits small business growth is a critical lack of confidence. (Click to Tweet) This lack of confidence makes substantial gains impossible to achieve. Confidence in your product and/or service, your ability to successfully grow your business, and your capacity to take on new responsibilities and new markets all play a vital role in small business growth.

2. Too much Ambition. Shocking, isn’t it! At first glance, this seems quite the opposite of the previous situation but it’s not.  Excessive ambition comes in many forms, not just wasteful overconfidence. A business that attempts to change too rapidly, or expands too broadly, often ends up with less successful results than one which focuses its efforts and develops specific, realistic goals.

3. “In-the-Box” Thinking. Getting trapped in preconceptions about your business limits your ability to grow. (Click to Tweet) Not every form of growth needs to be ‘the same, but bigger.’ In many cases, your greatest route to growth will be something new and different. Don’t sabotage your potential by closing your mind.

4. Failure to Control Costs. In the excitement of new opportunities and ideas, it’s easy to let costs grow out of control—rendering any gains pointless as you break the bank, even at new heights. Your business partners and employees may appreciate your new spending habits, however, your bottom line will go nowhere if you don’t consider costs alongside growth.

5. Undervaluing Morale.  This is a challenge for any business, growing or not. Employee morale determines efficiency, efficacy, turnover, and myriad other factors in your company’s performance. Keeping employees happy, even if it seems on the surface to be costing time or resources, give you better returns. 

6. Inefficient Operations. Growing companies often suffer as operational systems that barely held together at a smaller size fall apart completely. Waiting for that collapse, then patching the existing system to cover the cracks, wastes time, effort, and efficiency. Build your operations for the business you want…not the business you have. (Click to Tweet)

7. Unstructured Expansion. Expanding without clear goals often results in an enterprise pulling itself in many directions without growing. Develop a strategy for growth…one that includes a plan you can observe, tweak, and follow through on. Without structure, it can be difficult to recognize growth and nurture it.

8. Refusing the Proper Tools. Refusing to adapt to changes in the way a modern business operates can cripple your small business growth. As our ability to analyze and perfect our businesses grows, so too does the edge afforded by the proper tools. Hold back and your competitors will surge ahead.

9. Looking at the Wrong Metrics. Sometimes the obvious place to analyze isn’t the right place to analyze. Looking at the wrong values for your company’s success can lead you down foolish paths. It’s important to consider where your metrics will send you…and what improving certain numbers will truly gain you.

10. Failure to Seize Opportunities. The ultimate source of small business stagnation? A simple failure to seize opportunities. Not every chance to grow your business comes with a guarantee, a warranty, and a big blinking light saying “DO THIS!” (Click to Tweet)

Have you caught yourself in self-sabotaging behaviors? How did you put the brakes on it?