10 Unhealthy habits that can destroy your business
This page may contain links to Amazon.com or other sites from which I may receive commission on purchases you make after clicking on such links. Read my full Disclosure Policy
Running a business can be difficult at times, so don’t make it any harder on yourself than it already is. Your personal health can have a huge impact on the health of your business, so make sure you keep it a priority.
Here are 10 unhealthy habits that could hurt your business. Keep these in mind and look for their warning signs.
1. Getting Angry
Sometimes clients, suppliers, and even colleagues will do things that upset you, but there’s simply no way that getting angry helps you in business. When you get angry, your emotion overwhelms and blinds you, and adds stress to an already stressful lifestyle.
2. Self-Doubt
Remember that every business owner was inexperienced and unsure of themselves when they started out. No one is born an expert, but self-confidence will come as you gain experience.
3. Thinking You Know What You Don’t
A prime example is making assumptions about your target market based on what you think they like. You need objective data about your market on which to base your decisions.
If you’re too set in your opinions, you may miss important new information that comes along. Keep your mind open and know what you don’t know.
4. Bad Stress Management
There will be more stress ahead in the journey of running your own business. If you don’t deal well with stress, it’s time to learn some new coping strategies.
5. Working Until You Burn out
Because there is so much to do and only so many hours in a day, many solopreneurs push themselves to work long hours. Neglecting sleep and leisure activities leads to burnout, which can seriously damage your business.
6. Failure to Delegate
Learn to ask for help when you need it and delegate tasks that aren’t the best use of your time, energy and expertise.
7. Multitasking
When you multitask, it’s hard to give any of your tasks the attention they require.
8. Not Listening
To make your business a success, you have to meet your clients’ expectations, and you can’t do this unless you listen to them.
9. Fear of Spending Money
It’s important to keep an eye on cash flow and reduce expenses where you can, but there are some things that you simply have to pay for.
10. Fear
True courage means taking action in spite of the fear you feel. Push the fear aside and get down to business.
Running your own business can be challenging, but deeply rewarding. Do your best to recognize and cut out unhealthy habits and replace them with habits that will help you succeed.
Did you find this post helpful?
Share it with your network, and sign up to get new posts by email every week!
Join the Conversation
I recommend...
Great post! All of them apply to small business owners. I think self-doubt, fear of spending money, and failure to delegate are the three top unhealthy habits I see small business owners deal with. Thanks for sharing.
Fear of spending money, and failure to delegate are probably the top two that I see. It makes me crazy when I see people post in online discussion groups, looking for tools that will do everything except make the coffee, and “oh, it has to be free.”
Great post and very true! One other thing that can hurt your business is saying yes to doing things out of obligation. I’ve done that a few times and regretted it. So now I say no unless its good for my business.
I’ve fallen into that trap too, Autumn. Another one I should have included is taking on clients or projects that aren’t a good fit either because you can’t say no, or because you need the money. It nearly always leads to stress and it can hurt your reputation if you don’t do your best work or handle the situation well.
Being a social worker, I am well-skilled in active listening and it has served me well! Great list, Janet!
I bet there are a lot of times that your social work background serves you (and your clients) well as a professional organizer. So much of it relies on empathy and communication!
For me, it is the fears that get in my way. For my clients, it is the delegation. I always tell them that the Law of Delegation is that if someone can do a task 70% as well as you can, delegate it! Great list Janet.
I’ve never heard that Law before, Tara, but I’ll be quoting it for sure.
Love the active listening point. Especially when your business brings you into a client’s home, it is so important to listen and not just push in and set up a system that isn’t a good fit.
Sometimes one client’s situation seems so similar to another’s that it’s easy to fall into that trap!
Great post and great advice for business owners. We all fall into these traps sometimes. Thank you!
Thank you for dropping by, Sarah!
Love that you put “#9 Fear of Spending Money”!
I run into so many service-based entrepreneurs that are always looking for the “free” version of everything from calendar systems to business coaching.
This causes such a lack mentality and completely wastes so much time.
The free versions of things are usually frustrating to work with or won’t give you the results you are looking for.
A lack mentality and being cheap with yourself and your business seeps into your sales conversations and it is a vicious circle, you won’t sign up the client or get the income.
Thanks for getting this point out there Janet!
That reminds me of a conversation I had with a business coach when I was in the process of starting my business. She said, “If you aren’t willing to put money into your business, why should clients be willing to?” Thank you for reinforcing the message.
Yes! That is so true. If you don’t invest in your business but you expect your clients to it throws all the energy off. I think that is why a lot of my clients “magically” start getting clients when we start working together or they start investing in more self-care for themselves. I can’t really explain it. But there is the other side too that I’ve experienced myself and that is investing like crazy into tools for my business that were really overkill. I invested in Infusionsoft for 2 years and it was a really robust system and I even consulted other companies on how to use it. But, one day I thought, “You know, this is a really robust system, but it is just overkill for what I need”. I then simplified things. Sometimes we see the tools that all the big online gurus are using and think that is what is got them to where they are. It is never the tools, is it? 🙂 We don’t see what they are doing to really get to where they are.
Thanks for showing us the other side of the coin – spending is necessary, but you don’t necessarily need the most expensive options! (It always comes back to balance, doesn’t it?)
I think fear of spending money is a legitimate one – but if you do the research to make sure your spending will directly result in growing your business, it helps to dampen the fear.
Great point, Elana – and it reinforces the importance for marketers to focus on benefits rather than features!
Great post Janet! I need to remind myself of all of these from time to time. But I think #5 and #7 are my worst habits. I’m pinning this so I can look at it when needed. Thanks!
Good for you for recognizing them! Thanks for pinning – I hope you’ll find it a helpful reminder to take care of yourself.
I need to work on…well, a number of these, lately. Did you write this for me?
Absolutely, Hazel! 😉
Or perhaps the universe knew you needed to read it today and that’s why you ended up here.