Being a business leader or an entrepreneur is one of the most demanding and difficult roles a person can take on. It consists of countless ups and downs, wins, losses and regrets that can serve as valuable lessons, not only for yourself, but also for others on a similar journey.
Let me share with you 10 regrets that entrepreneurs could face even after they’ve long left their businesses.
Regret #1 – Not Taking Enough Personal Time
We all know that it’s important that you focus on yourself. As an entrepreneur, it’s important that you are making time for yourself, for your own well-being and also for your family. You can’t just, day in and day out, run into your business or to your office and then spend hours and hours of time in the office. You’ve got to make enough personal time for yourself.
Regret #2 – Executing Ideas Too Quickly
Sometimes, you’ve got a great idea but you don’t do any market research or you don’t get a second opinion. You just jump straight into that idea, and you try and focus and put all your effort into it. This goes back to regret number 1, not taking that personal time. You’ve got this great idea and all you want to do is make it a reality, and then you pour hour after hour after hour into it, and you don’t succeed.
When it comes to executing on your ideas, you want to make sure that you’ve got a clear plan, you’ve got the strategy behind it, and you understand what tactics are involved. You can use items such as a business model canvas to test that idea as well.
So, it’s important to execute fast, but make sure that you do so with a plan.
Regret #3 – Putting Revenue over Profit
The third regret a lot of entrepreneurs have is putting revenue over profit. They’re just chasing sales, and they’re not focused on the actual profit at the end of the day.
It reminds me of a great story my dad used to share with me. My dad was an entrepreneur as well, and he spoke about how he and his brother were partners and how his brother focused on sales, whereas he was focused on the operations and the production in their manufacturing business. His brother used to just go out and make sale after sale. He’d sometimes sell to the wrong customers, and he’d be like, “Yeah, but we made a sale.” My dad would say, “Yeah, but that customer is a bad payer, and the amount of effort and time to produce what that customer needs is going to far outweigh the profit that we would be making.”
So, you can’t just think about the sales. You’ve got to understand what the profit is at the end of the day as well.
Regret #4 – Blaming Others for Setbacks
Another regret that most entrepreneurs face at some time in their lives is blaming others for their setbacks. They might blame their staff, their spouse, the customer or the supplier.
Ultimately, as a business leader, the buck stops with you. You are the leader. You determine what happens in the business and what doesn’t happen in the business, and you can’t blame others for those kinds of setbacks. You can’t blame them if things don’t go right or don’t work out for you. You’ve got to make sure that you accept responsibility and you focus on solutions to those issues and problems as opposed to pointing the finger and blaming others.
Regret #5 – Failing to Support or Hold on to Talented Staff
Staff are critical. They can make or break your business, and if you’ve got skilled and talented staff, you want to make sure that you support them and you hold on to them as well. Sometimes, you do need to let go of staff that are not the right fit for your company or your culture. It’s important to consider:
- Do they get your company’s values?
- Do they fall in line with the company’s mission?
If you’ve got great staff, you should be bending over backwards to support them, making sure that you’re providing ways for them to upskill themselves if need be. At times, they may need personal time, so how can you support them with that knowing that they are valuable to your company and organisation?
Sometimes, holding on to great staff is important because they could go off somewhere else and form a new company or join a competitor, and then you are in trouble. So, hold on to your talented and loyal staff that add value and bring value back to your business.
Regret #6 – Ignoring Feedback
Another regret that a lot of entrepreneurs face when they’re building, growing and scaling their business is ignoring feedback. You’ve got to take feedback, both positive and negative, because that’s how you improve. Sometimes, a lot of products are actually created or services are brought to market because of feedback, even negative feedback, that they heard from a customer. This way, you find out what works and what doesn’t work.
It’s important to take on feedback, both positive and negative. What’s most important is to make it easy for your customers or even your staff to provide that feedback. Ask them regularly about the quality of your services, the quality of the delivery, and a range of other things that you can do to gain feedback. Feedback is almost a lifeblood to a business, and especially during times such as these we are experiencing now. With so much disruption happening in the world, you need to have the right feedback on what you need to be doing to get yourself moving back on track and moving forward.
Regret #7 – Not Asking for Help When it is Needed
Seeking out a mentor, a coach or someone that has experience and just asking them for their help is essential to maintaining and growing your business.
Some entrepreneurs think, “I shouldn’t let someone else do my books because then, they’re going to know everything about my business.”
No, get someone else to do that because they might have an outsider’s opinion on that. They can guide you and help you if you need the help. If things aren’t adding up, the numbers aren’t making sense, you’re not making a profit, then you need to go and seek help. Are you struggling with productivity and not producing products in a timely manner? Obviously, cost goes up when production and productivity are low. What do you need to do? You need to ask for help. Get professional help. Get expert help.
Regret #8 – Refusing to Abandon Poor Projects
One of the biggest regrets that I’ve come across that a lot of entrepreneurs face is refusing to abandon poor projects.
Many times, entrepreneurs just have this ego or pride that they do not want to let go of these projects that are performing really badly. It’s sucking the business dry. It’s eating up all the cash flow. It’s eating up resources. The business is struggling, but they pursue these these failing projects. And, a lot of it comes down to pride and ego. It’s refusing to admit that:
- It was the wrong decision
- We should never have done this project
- It’s time to call it quits
- This project is not working and we need move on
This is another big regret. When you chase after poorly performing projects, this could bring down a very profitable, thriving business.
Regret #9 – Not Having a Clear Backup Plan
Nothing runs smoothly, and in business, it’s guaranteed that there’s going to be problem after problem. If you find a solution for that problem, you’ll find another problem will stick its ugly head out. You need to have a backup plan, and you’ve got to sometimes have a backup plan B as well as a plan C.
Entrepreneurs go and build these great business plans and things don’t work out, but they don’t have a contingency plan; they don’t have that backup plan.
Backup plans could be something like having cash reserves, putting aside some money in case a project that you’re working on is utilising a lot more resources than you thought. So, you’ve got a backup plan to keep that project on target and at pace as well. Bear in mind regret number 8 – make sure that you get rid of poorly performing projects.
Regret #10 – Burning Bridges
The last regret that I find most business owners have is burning bridges. It’s one of the worst things that you can do. You may have a fallout with a supplier or a fallout with a customer, and you decide, “That’s it, I’m just going to cut all ties. I’m not going to want to do any business with that person ever again (or that organisation or that company).” In other words, burning bridges.
You never know when you may need to go back to that company for whatever reason, so always think, “How can I mend the problem?” In business, there are always issues and problems and there are always disagreements and arguments, but find a way to resolve it. If you have to part ways, part ways on good terms, but try not to completely burn that bridge and destroy any opportunity of being able to go back in a time of need.
Sometimes, it might not even be you who is in the position of need, but maybe the other person might be in need, and you are willing and able to support and help them, but because you’ve burned that bridge, the other person may not want to reach out to you.
These are 10 regrets that business leaders and entrepreneurs could face when they are trying to grow and scale a business. Hopefully, you don’t make any of them.
