There is plenty of advice that, though popular, ought not be listened to and definitely not implemented. Why? Well, we’ll get to those reasons in a minute. Just as it is important to familiarize yourself with good business advice to follow, you should be aware of bad business advice to ignore. In this post, we’ll look at three commonly used pieces of business advice that you shouldn’t use.
- “Think Big”: The “think big” advice is true to an extent. You should have a long-term strategy set up and a business plan written. But what is more important than thinking big is setting achievable, incremental steps to bring to fruition the bigger picture. Instead of focusing all of your attention on thinking big, plan small steps to guide you along the way.
- “The Customer is Always Right”: Anyone who works in retail knows this to be a falsehood. Somewhere, this timeless saying was created for the purpose of promoting greater business success. However, anyone with common sense knows that to say someone purchasing an item from a business is always right about something simply isn’t true. Instead of having your business and team members live by this saying, focus on something that prioritizes the needs of customers, even when they are wrong. Handle a “the customer isn’t actually right” situation with grace and tact, but more importantly, with a solution that helps them get what they really need, not what they think they need.
- Perfect Your Business Plan: Nothing is perfect. Nothing will ever be perfect and that includes your business plan. If you wait to start a business until you have the perfect business plan, you’ll never start your business. Create something solid and useful, but don’t spend endless hours fussing over a business plan if it gets in the way of actually executing a business strategy.
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