Avoiding Small Business Mistakes
Running a small business can feel high stakes sometimes. After all, it tends to be a smaller operation, meaning you’re often one of the only ports of call for social media, sales, order fulfilment – basically everything. While making mistakes is inevitable (and completely human), there are several ways you can set yourself up to avoid them where possible.
Process is the key to small business success, so here are some of our simple, easy hacks for making running a small business as easy and efficiently as possible:
1
Decide on your brand policies
More often than not, small business owners take a responsive approach to issues – after all if it hasn’t happened yet, how can you plan for it? But getting ahead of any potential pitfalls can really help ensure things run smoothly in a crisis.
From deciding on your returns policy, posting and processing times to making sure these are clear to customers, you’ll always have a point of reference to direct customers to.
2
Manage expectations
Sometimes customer frustration can come from being left in the dark. To manage expectations, it’s important to be super clear about what customers can expect from you at any point. Examples include:
- Showing a banner or announcement on your website with processing times
- Adding a boilerplate to each listing with clear measurements and what’s included
- Using your social media to share live updates such as shipping delays or delivery issues
- Getting in touch with customers when issues arise so they feel kept in the loop
3
Set boundaries
As a small business owner, it can be tempting to work every hour of every day to keep customers happy, but being a well-rested, boundary-focused business owner will serve you well in the long run. Some tips to try:
- Be clear about your working hours. Are you a Monday to Friday 9-5 business? Update your website and your Google page to reflect that so customers know when they can expect to hear from you
- Don’t reply right away – yes, it can be disheartening to receive a negative email or a bad review but acting from a place of emotion can end up causing longer term issues. Draft a reply and then come back to it a few hours later to see if you can make any tweaks and look to respond in a calm manner
- Once you have all your boundaries firmly set, add them to an FAQs out of office so customers and contacts will know exactly what to expect from you and when
4
Give yourself a break
While we can always prepare for mistakes and errors, sometimes it’s okay to embrace them – after all, once you’ve messed up, you’re much less likely to repeat your mistake. Handle it calmly and be as transparent as you can, and who knows? Your big mistake could bring in a game-changing policy or process that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of!
