Every business owner works hard daily to help their company. Unfortunately, there are many actions they take that do more harm than good. Here are the top seven and what to do about them:
1. You’re Busy, but not Productive
Emails, phone calls, and meetings get in the way of accomplishing critical tasks. When these interruptions dominate your day, you become busy, but not productive. Instead, start the day with two goals that need to be accomplished. Do these two things before anything else and your day will always be productive.
2. You Don’t ask for Feedback
The old adage says that no news is good news. You haven’t heard any complaints from your customers lately, so everything’s fine, right? Not necessarily. People typically do not tell you what they think. They usually just go away dissatisfied (and tell their friends and post it on the Web). Many times you need to do some research to see what people are saying about your company. Google your company’s name and pay attention to the search results. Read Amazon, TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews. Send an email or post a comment to ask “what can I be doing better?” Don’t be afraid of what you’ll hear, but rather excited about the opportunity to make your company better.
3. You Post to Social Media Without Thinking of Your Brand
Many companies have designated social media pages that they carefully craft to represent their brand. But what about your personal social media pages? You should be just as careful there. Your social media connections are made up of friends, co-workers, clients and even potential customers, and your actions always represent your company. Do not post snarky comments about customers or competitors. Think twice before posting a controversial political article or a picture of your alcoholic drink of choice that evening. Social media posts are an easy way to damage your reputation.
4. You Don’t Update Your Website
Your website is a resource for both prospects and customers; if it’s not updated, you are hurting your company. The most common place for companies to fall behind is on their blog. Since the posts are dated, it’s easy to tell how much attention the website’s getting. Old posts give the impression that the website isn’t being maintained. Make sure your most recent post isn’t more than a few weeks old. Not only will posting more frequently give a better impression, it gives Google more to index so that your search rankings will be higher.
5. You Ignore a Client’s Complaint
If you have an unhappy customer you have not dealt with yet, you are hurting your business. The best course of action is to apologize as soon as possible and offer a generous solution. Don’t underestimate the power of a person’s angry voice. In this case, the time you’d spend doing damage control would far exceed the time it would’ve taken to remedy the situation.
6. You Make Critical Decisions in the Afternoon
The time of day affects our brain’s functioning. According to neuroeconomist, Baba Shiv, we should make more decisions or hold important meetings in the morning when serotonin, the calming hormone, is at its natural high. It makes us feel less risk averse, so we can make harder choices. Later in the day, it’s common to postpone decisions because we favor indecision or just avoid making a choice at all.
7. You Fill Every Waking Moment with Activity
A lack of downtime during the day hurts your company because you aren’t performing your best. The human body is designed to labor in short pulses and requires physical and mental rest at regular intervals. Schedule at least two times during the workday to reflect and recharge for a few minutes. This is done most effectively by wandering around outside where you work. Remember that taking care of yourself means you are taking care of your company.
Which one will you commit to improving?
Republished by permission. Original here.
Office Mess Photo via Shutterstock
This article, “7 Ways to do Your Business More Harm Than Good” was first published on Small Business Trends
from Blogger http://evangelinagius.blogspot.com/2015/05/7-ways-to-do-your-business-more-harm_15.html
Evangelina Gius 