10 Mistakes Business Owners Make That Lead to Long-Term Suffering

When you first start a business, you want people to be happy... at all costs.

You want to be helpful. You want to be flexible. You want to provide great customer service. And when someone asks for a small favor, it seems harmless to say yes. You're establishing yourself and want people to come back. 

The problem is that businesses aren't usually made miserable by one enormous decision. They're made miserable by tiny precedents. A quick answer to a text at 10 p.m. (while you're wondering how they even found your cell phone number), responding at all times in Facebook messenger, instagram messenger, Square messenger, and so on. A policy exception because someone's situation is heartbreaking. A little custom work before an order is placed. Creating a mock up at no-cost even though it's costing you both time and money. Moving something around because one customer asked nicely, or because they refer people to you, or because -- even worse - they're not asking nicely.

None of these things feels particularly consequential when you do it once.

Do them long enough, though, and you can accidentally train your customers to expect a version of your business that you never intended to run. Then you end up doing what I, and many other business owners, have had to do; back-tracking, retraining the process, and explaining yourself and your changes in policies to established customers and begging to understand why these changes happened. 

1. Answering Customers Everywhere

Email. Text. Facebook Messenger. Instagram. Website chat. Comments on a post. Square messenger. In passing at the grocery store. YouTube comments. Through PTA's WhatsApp. In Minecraft chat (Is this a thing?)

When your business is small, answering wherever someone happens to contact you feels helpful and easy. It is also how you accidentally create six customer-service departments staffed by one person. And it is easy - until you forgot about the one message from that customer who was talking that empty seat and you sold it to someone else and now suddenly you have 7 people standing in a crowded room trying to move people around and seat them. 

The problem isn't answering one Instagram message. The problem is that every time you conduct business through a channel, you teach that customer that the channel works.

And they'll use it again.

Eventually, you're trying to remember whether someone changed their reservation by email or text, whether a question came through Facebook or Instagram, and whether the person who swears they contacted you actually sent a message to an account you haven't checked in three days. And then you're doing what I had to do - hire someone to help you manage things. Then suddenly your operating costs are sky rocketing and you're needing to raise prices on a business that isn't exactly thriving yet. 

Pick your official communication channel and teach people to use it.

You aren't being difficult. You're creating a system that allows you to actually find things later. And believe me - it's not as annoying to people as you think it is. In fact, if you don't do it this way then they lose the communication as well. "Hey Tina, I thought I had sent you a message about xyz but now I can' find it." (If I had a dollar for every time I received that message)

2. Making Exceptions Instead of Building Them Into Your Policy

This one sounds heartless until you've been in business long enough to realize that making exceptions can actually put you in the position of deciding whose hardship deserves compassion.

Suppose your policy says tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Then a customer tells you she's undergoing cancer treatment and can't attend. You make an exception. Of course you do. You're human. How could you not?

But now another customer's dog dies. Another wakes up with the flu. Someone's child is sick. Someone's car breaks down. Someone's having a panic attack (this one hits home for me) Someone has a family emergency. Someone made an honest mistake and booked the wrong date. Someone lost their job.

Which one deserves an exception?

If cancer treatment qualifies but losing a beloved pet doesn't, you've just decided that one person's terrible day is more legitimate than another person's. 

That's not a position I want to be in.

And customers shouldn't have to disclose increasingly personal information to a business owner in an attempt to prove that their circumstances are serious enough. And if you make these exceptions enough (I did, because - like you - I'm human) and now you're having to pay your assistant to stay an extra 4 hours a week to manage your ticketing system and move people around, keep up with credits, cancellations. You'd be surprised how quickly this process adds up to work in hours. You don't have to be a major corporation to have the amount of volume to end up with this being a huge pain in the booty. 

For me, now, my policy is ticket sales are final. The end. No transfers, no credits, no refunds. When you purchase your seat for that date that seat now belongs to you. Congrats, it's a boy. If you can't make it, then you have to find your seat a new mommy - I mean, occupant. 

I just eliminated my need for someone to manage my ticketing system because there's no credits, transfers, wait lists, etc. Prices on the tickets can stay where they are and everyone benefits. 

If there's a situation where you believe an exception should exist, build that exception into your policy.

Maybe you allow a certain number of cancellations. Maybe you offer ticket protection. Maybe there's a clearly defined emergency provision. Maybe your particular business needs something entirely different.

The specifics aren't the point.

The point is to create a policy you can apply consistently and compassionately without requiring yourself to become the judge of whose circumstances are sad enough to qualify.

A good policy doesn't eliminate compassion. In your case, it might be cancellations are allowed in a certain amount of time, or you only refund a certain amount, or - like me - you let anyone take the ticket off their hands. But think it through and make sure it's not going to end up needing to be changed once again. Creating an exception in the policy is the compassion.

3. Doing Work Before Someone Has Paid You

“Can you customize this?”

Absolutely.

“Could you add a few little details?”

Sure.

“Could you show me what that might look like?”

And there it is. 

There's a line between answering a question necessary to make a purchasing decision and starting the work before the purchase exists. I sell artwork, so I'm happy to tell someone whether a customization is possible. But once we've established that I can do it, the next step is placing the order. Because otherwise I'm spending time discussing placement, colors, details, mockups and possibilities for a piece that may never be purchased.

Payment is not the final step after you've proven how helpful you can be. It's the point at which the work begins. If you do offer mock-ups then you offer it as part of the process. Do you require a deposit for this? Is it refundable? Do you offer pictures of work in progress? Since my medium is watercolor I don't do this because often, the work in progress is not so pretty and then people are saying "Wait, is that the final color?" and they start panicking. 

4. Being Too Available

If you answer a customer text at 10 p.m., you may think you've provided exceptional customer service. The customer may learn something entirely different:

Tina answers texts at 10 p.m.

Do it repeatedly and you've created an expectation you never consciously agreed to. This is especially easy when you're self-employed because your phone is right there. You see the question. You know the answer. It'll only take thirty seconds. Except there are twenty people who only need thirty seconds.

Your availability is something you train people to understand. You can be warm, responsive and excellent at customer service without being perpetually accessible. For me, this has become about protecting my children's time as well. Answering that text on Sunday morning may not seem like a big deal, but it adds up. Many of my customers are long term and very loyal. They are why I"m here today. Many of them have also become friends and they text me in general, like friends do. 

So when they text me a business question? I just re-direct them. It makes sense to them. "Hey, I'm already chatting with Tina and just thought of this question..." But when it's my first day off in 3 weeks, you're throwing me back into work mode and that wears on someone long-term. It wasn't until I started burning out that I realized I really had to separate the two and protect my personal time. So now I just simply answer, "Hey, do you mind emailing me that so I don't lose this question and can answer you when I'm back at work on Monday?" 

5. Solving Problems That Aren't Yours

This may be one of the easiest traps to fall into. "Do you know why my watercolor paper is buckling?" Paper they didn't buy off your website but on someone else's or  just a question in general. As an instructor this is a difficult one for me because I'm the expert, right? Isn't it my job to explain this? This goes back to #4. I had to learn the hard way that I needed to protect my personal time. 
These questions can also lead to opportunities in your business. A hole you can fill for your customers. For me, these are the questions that get built into my Watercolor 101 and intro to Watercolor courses. 
"I bought the pen you recommended off Amazon and it's not working."  
"I'm sorry to hear that! Definitely reach back out to Amazon so they can fix that." 

So they can fix that. 

6. Explaining Your Boundaries Until They Sound Negotiable

Early in business, saying “no” can feel uncomfortable.

So instead of:

“I don't offer transfers.”

you write four paragraphs explaining why you don't offer transfers, how much you wish you could help, what happened last year that caused the policy, how your scheduling works and how terribly sorry you are.

You've now accidentally turned a policy into the opening statement of a negotiation. Customers don't need your entire internal business rationale. A policy can be communicated kindly and still be concise.

The more you defend a reasonable boundary, the more it can sound like you need permission to have it. You don't.

7. Redesigning Your Business Around Individual Customers

One customer would prefer the class on another date. One person wants a seasonal event scheduled earlier. Someone wants you to stay open later. Someone wants a product you don't carry. Individually, these requests can sound completely reasonable.

But your calendar, inventory, policies and offerings have to work for the business as a whole, not whichever customer happens to be standing in front of you. Listen to patterns, though. If twenty customers are asking for the same thing, that's useful business information. If one customer wants you to rearrange August because she'd prefer to paint the ocean before her Bahamian vacation, not after? Those are not the same thing.

8. Offering Solutions Nobody Asked You to Provide

This one is particularly sneaky because it feels productive. Someone asks if you're going to be in class early so they can finish their work from the previous week. You had no plans to but now you're trying to figure it out for them. "I'm not, but I can stay until ___ " etc. 

"I won't be in any earlier than planned." The end. "However, you're welcome to book studio-time with me." (This is something I already offer, not an exception to my plans) 

9. Setting Prices for the Business You Have Today Instead of the Business You Want Tomorrow

Low prices can feel safe when you're new.

You want customers. You're building a reputation. You don't want to scare anyone away. But pricing creates expectations too.

If your business grows, your expenses increase, your schedule fills and your expertise becomes more valuable, eventually those introductory prices may no longer support the business. Then raising them feels enormous because your customers have learned to think of the old price as the “real” price.

Price according to what it actually takes to deliver the product or service sustainably—not according to how nervous you feel asking someone to pay for it.

A price that requires you to overwork isn't affordable. You're just paying the difference yourself. And this will not be sustainable long-term.

10. Building the Business Your Customers Want Instead of the Business You Want

This is the big one.

Customers will always have ideas about what you should offer. "You should teach kids! My 7 year old is super artistic. She has a few friends that are as well. Would you be open to teaching them?" My age is 12+ so this is a question I get asked often. So I could say yes. "Can you teach another medium? Like oil or acrylic?" Technically I could. 

And here's the dangerous part:

I might succeed.

You can build exactly what everyone asks for. You can fill the calendar. You can increase revenue. You can become known for being endlessly accommodating and doing all the things whether you wanted to or not. (I don't want to teach kids or teach oil or acrylic) 

And then one day you can look around and realize you've built yourself a very successful job that you absolutely hate.

Your customers get to decide whether they want to buy what you offer. They do not get to collectively design the life you have to live in order to provide it. Saying no in the beginning might feel right. But then you also start to dilute your expertise. If I start to teach all mediums then I'm no longer the watercolor expert but the art teacher. This is great for someone who wants that, I'm not that person. If I start to teach kids I need to change the paints I use and tone down some of my adult geared marketing - both things that bring me joy in my business.

Now, I'm the watercolorist who teaches adults. This is what I want to do. This is what I love. And I get to keep doing it because I put those boundaries up early. 

The Tiny Decisions Become the Business