For the purpose of running a business successfully, you need to have expertise in finance, accounting, business law, marketing, strategic development and many other fields. As your business keeps growing, your responsibilities also keep expanding. There is a huge amount of hard work and risk in any business you run and that’s why many businesses shut down within the first 18 months.

Here are 6 common mistakes small businesses should do away with:

1. No Space for Ego – For a business to be successful, you have to make several right decisions. It is difficult to take the correct decision and choose the best all the time. Mostly, the biggest blockage to making the best choice is not lack of skills or knowledge but the business owner’s ego and stubbornness on his/her thoughts.

Sometimes business owners take a decision depending on their gut feeling without doing any proper research and survey. It is advised to stay updated always and think with an open mind. This is extremely important for a successful business.

2. Be sure before hiring – A hiring manager should hire wisely. Hiring a wrong person could lead to a big waste of time, effort, and funds. Usually, in a small business, only the hiring manager is responsible for deciding and hiring.

You should not limit the interview of the candidate only up to the hiring manager. There should be several rounds of interviews. They could be written or on computer or face to face. You have to keep in mind how well is this resource going to fit into the team. Make sure that the candidate is a complete fit in the company before hiring.

3. Spend Proper Time in Planning –A business owner starts a business in the field of his expertise. This is highly beneficial as it reduces the learning time. But there is a huge difference between having the knowledge and practical application of that knowledge. It is extremely important to have a proper business plan and an execution plan.

Even if the business owner has great skills, he must follow a plan which would be helpful in keeping the business streamlined. Plans help in meeting deadlines and stay focused on the mission of the business. There is a very old saying “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

4. Define proper goals and mission –To achieve success at what you do, you must properly draft business goals, vision, reasons, and points of passion. Even if you have a small group of people working, it is difficult for all the people to have a common consensus. So, at these times, a well-defined goal or mission is helpful in coming to a conclusion and preventing from any form of argument. You should not compromise on your goals in order to meet a consensus.

5. Accept your Weaknesses – Every human has a set of strengths and weaknesses. It would be your biggest mistake if you ignore your weaknesses. No matter how perfect you are at your work, you can still make mistakes. So, you should not be overconfident about your working skills and accept that you are also bound to make mistakes. A successful business owner would be the one who would know his or her weaknesses well. You should be open to inputs from others about what they feel you lack.

6. Manage your employees efficiently – People management skill is one of the most important skills that the owner of a small business should have. There are several misconceptions in everyone’s mind regarding managing resources. The employees are the assets of the company.

All employees are different and as a leader, it’s your responsibility to understand their key skills and behaviour. You should know how to motivate your assets and how to make them work in the most efficient manner. Make sure you spend proper time in understanding each of them.

The key to a successful business is uniqueness, but being over confident is the deadliest mistake. Even a small mistake made by you could lead to the collapse of your business. So, avoid the mistakes mentioned above and keep going, taking your business to new heights.