No matter what services or products you sell, developing a business mindset is a must. And while that might not pay the bills, it does help you make the right decisions when times are rough.
So in this blog post, I’ll talk about the five common mindset pitfalls many small business owners make and give solutions to avoid them. If that sounds interesting, then keep on reading!
Pitfall #1 – Procrastinating Too Much
We’ve all dealt with procrastination! Sometimes, it’s just so hard to do the things we know are right! So why do we do this?
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why! However, here are some common ones:
- Overwhelmed by work – As a solopreneur, you have a lot of shoes to fill! So sometimes, you might feel like you’ve got more work to do than you can complete.
- Distracted with other things – It’s easy to get into the rabbit hole that is social media. It’s easy to do and addicting, which could manipulate you not to work.
- Not challenging work enough – Sometimes, the problem is that you don’t challenge yourself too much! And since it’s easy, you might think you’ve got more time, making it easier for you to get into a loop of procrastination.
So what can you do to eliminate procrastination? Well, for starters, you should understand why you’re procrastinating. Then, you should solve it depending on the issue:
- If you’re overwhelmed by work, you might want to cut the unnecessary tasks from your to-do lists, allocate some tasks to others, or split up your challenging tasks into baby steps to make them seem easier.
- If you’re easily distracted, then you might want to remove the distractions and work in a less distracting place, such as a library (if you can).
- And if you find your work too easy, challenge yourself with work that is above your current skill level. According to Steven Kotler’s book “The Rise of Superman,” you should challenge yourself to do 4% more than you think you’re capable of!
Related: The P Word: Procrastination – Why You Do It And How To Stop It
Pitfall #2 – Imposter Syndrome
Starting and maintaining your small business can be both exciting and terrifying. At the same time, you might feel compelled to grow while feeling like your service/products are not worth the price you’re asking, making you undervalue yourself and your products.
That’s called the imposter syndrome, which many people face, including me. There have been many times when I’ve felt like I’m not cut out to be a virtual business manager.
And how did I solve this? Well, the solution is simple but hard to implement. And that’s to take to leap of faith. No one is fully ready for anything and will always find something that stops us from doing what we should.
So instead, we should try doing the best we can. And if you make mistakes, learn from them, and you’ll improve!
Pitfall #3 – Seeking Perfection
To be successful in business, you need to give your customers a great experience. That way, they’ll enjoy our products and services, which makes them come back and buy from us again.
However, that might sometimes doom small business owners from becoming successful. While it’s good to strive to give excellent service, you shouldn’t expect yourself to do it perfectly all the time.
That’s because there is no perfection! There’s always a way to improve. So instead of being a perfectionist, you should develop a “good enough” mindset. That way, you can actually get stuff done instead of delaying them until they are perfect.
And if you make any mistakes, you can learn from them and improve next time!
Pitfall #4 – Staying in Your Comfort Zone
Imagine this! You’ve just hit a business milestone that you’ve worked hard on. What will you do?
Well, if you’re anything like me, then you’d celebrate it. However, getting to a particular milestone might start declining your growth. That’s because you might not have the motivation to keep striving, and you’ll start doing the most comfortable things.
And that’s bad as if you stay in the same place for a long time, you’ll start getting behind your competitors. So instead of doing that, you need to do two things:
- Create new milestones to strive for
- And force yourself to evolve, even if you don’t feel like it.
That’s the only way a small business owner like yourself can continue growing their business!
Pitfall #5 – Not Having a Balanced Life
As mentioned in one of the previous mindset pitfalls, small business owners have tons of work on their plate. That’s because they don’t have other people working with them. And that could lead them to work overtime and not take care of different aspects of your life.
So instead of falling into the same pitfall yourself, you should strive to live as balanced a life as possible. It’s okay to take a day off to relax and care for yourself. It can improve your productivity in many ways, as a day off could recover from burnout!
Related: Find Out How Outsourcing Can Restore Your Work-Life Balance?
Conclusion
So as you can see, building a business mindset mostly requires two things:
- Creating action plans
- And developing strong self-discipline
So instead of letting this information collect dust in your brain, why not take action from it? That’s the only way you can improve your business mindset and start seeing growth.
And if you have any problems overcoming these mindset pitfalls and developing a business mindset that works for you, why not schedule a coaching call with me? I’d love to help you out!