3 Small Business Mistakes Every Black Entrepreneur Must Avoid

By Johnny Palmer
 
Joseph
Q: Johnny – I’m a black entrepreneur that started a business to earn more money and to get out of the “rat race”. Since opening my small black business, what I’ve found is that I actually work longer hours and I earn less money than I did while working for corporate America. I don’t mind the longer hours because I love entrepreneurship, but how can I earn more money? What am I doing wrong?
 
Johnny
A: Your situation is fairly common. Not knowing the specifics of your business activities, I will share with you what I consider to be the top 3 reasons why small black businesses fail to live up to their full profit potential. Avoidance of these 3 business mistakes should improve your revenues dramatically.
 
3. Not practicing enough marketing activities - The primary goal of most all black entrepreneurs is to make a profit by providing its clients with what they want when they want it. The secret to increasing profits is the proper marketing of the business. Every black entrepreneur needs to strive to practice better marketing strategies because marketing is the only means in which a new client can become aware of your business. For specific information on marketing techniques and strategies, frequently visit Blackentrepreneurship.com’s Marketing section at http://www.blackentrepreneurship.com/Marketing.cfm
 
2. Lack of great client service - Whatever success you’ve experienced with your black business stems from having clients that believed in you and your products or services. You need to be certain to regularly show your appreciation of these clients. You need to go beyond the basics of being polite to your clients and strive to set yourself apart from your competition. Since most businesses do not focus on providing great client service it should be easy to set yourself apart if you implement a few simply practices focused in this area.
 
Every quarter of the year you should contact your client base with the intention of doing nothing more than to thank them for their support of your business. This contact can be in the form of an email, a post card sent to their home/business or even in the form of a quick phone call to your client. I really like the practice of calling your client base. How many times has a business owner called you simply to thank you for buying their products or services – not very many times right? This is an excellent example of providing great client service.
 
1. Poor time management - Lack of good time management is the number one reason that black entrepreneurs do not earn maximum profits with their small black business enterprises. Successful black small business owners use their time in such a manner that the results lead to the earning of extraordinary profits in their business endeavors.
 
The major key to time management is the realization that it is impossible to accomplish all business activities in one day; instead, the intelligent black entrepreneur must choose how to spend the limited amount of time that is allotted each day for business activities. In other words, a daily plan that outlines specific tasks that are to be accomplished is needed for progressive business goal accomplishment. The use of a daily plan can help you to keep track of everything that you need to do and lead to an increase in the profitability of your business almost immediately.
 
Hope these few ideas help!
 
About the author:
Johnny Palmer is the Founder and CEO of Blackentrepreneurship.com – The #1 Resource for Black Entrepreneurship. You’ll find the latest news and information for Black Entrepreneurs and Black Businesses. Don’t forget to sign up to receive your free subscription to The BlackEntrepreneurship.com Newsletter