Tag: Mistakes

7 Mistakes, Missteps, & Muck Ups That Cost A Business Coach Big (And How To Avoid Them)

As the old year comes to a close, I always look back to see what I did well and what could be improved. Below, I share with you my mistakes, missteps and muckups that I experienced in my business over the past year.

Many of these mistakes, missteps and muck-ups cost me money, so I share them with you so you can avoid these as you make your own New Year’s resolutions.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #1 – Spending way too much time on my computer, instead of meeting people face to face. Networking online is great, however, it can never take the place of meeting face-to-face or having a conversation over the phone. Sending emails are so darn easy, but I found that I got too wrapped up with the ease of this technology. I even had a huge argument with one of my vendors because I tried to “break things off” with him over email. I should know better.

    LESSON LEARNED – Compliment online networking activities with face-to-face and phone meetings.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #2 – Spending way too much time on the technical side of my business. I worked in the technology sector for close to 10-years and I pride myself in being a chick that knows her techie stuff. However, my digital knowledge kept me up late at night as I took responsibility for updating the content on my webpages, creating new autoresponders and creating new HTML pages for new products, instead of farming things out to others. For every new product or teleclass I would launch, it would take me 8-hours to get all the technical pieces ready.

    LESSON LEARNED – Hire a techie expert to maintain my website. Let it go.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #3 – Not delegating my administrative tasks. There are certain things I hate doing in my business – updating documents, making them look pretty, writing content and writing sales copy for new information products. I just can’t stand doing these things and it would take me eons just to write one sentence. Then, that meant I would have to rush and write something quickly because I sat on it for too long and the deadline was an hour away.

    LESSON LEARNED – Hire a virtual assistant or copywriter to do all this stuff for me.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #4 – Spinning my wheels targeting the wrong market. When I first started coaching, I was on a mission to inspire women to create the career they deserve. Although I was making money, I didn’t feel passionate about helping women climb the corporate ladder. It wasn’t until my mother came to one of my speaking engagements that she gave me the clarity I needed. With her wisdom and her keen eye, she helped me craft my current mission – to help business owners make more money using online media.

    LESSON LEARNED – Really listen to what my clients (and mom) are telling me about the problem they’re experiencing.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #5 – Creating a bunch of cool information products all at once. Just because I can bang out 5 special reports in a weekend, doesn’t mean I have the manpower or energy to promote them all at the same time. I realized that in order to make sales on an information product, I really need to market them. Until I do that, they’re going to sit on my website, look pretty and go stale.

    LESSON LEARNED – Focus on one product for at least 3-months and use my affiliates to help promote the new product.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #6 – Attending networking events that weren’t producing results. While networking is about building relationships, it should also lead to some quality contacts. Unfortunately, I attended too many networking events where everyone was like me – an entrepreneur looking for business. Although I made some great contacts, after attending the same networking events for 12-months straight, I noticed that my networking circle was stale and lacked any power.

    LESSON LEARNED – Stick with a networking event for no more than 4 consecutive events, analyze the results, then move on. Also, attend more networking events that puts me in touch with my target audience.

  • Mistake, Misstep and Muck-up #7 – Not spending enough on educating myself. As a entrepreneur, it’s so easy to forget that I have to invest in myself by taking courses that can help me learn how to do things better. In the first half of the year, I didn’t spend a dime and my progress showed for it. However, in the latter part of the year, I started to spend a bit on educating myself on new techniques and processes. Doing this put me in touch with how to do things better in my business, as well as meeting some phenomenal people and trainers. Plus, I noticed a spike in sales.

    LESSON LEARNED – Set aside at least 10% of all business income in a savings account to spend on educational materials.

These are what I consider to be the 7 mistakes, missteps and muck-ups that cost me money and I trust that by reading this, you will avoid them as you make your New Year’s resolutions.

Better yet, if you have a mistakes, missteps or muck-up that you experienced in your own business, list them, then write down the lessons you learned from that experience.

Is Your Company Making These Graphic Design Mistakes?

Companies use graphic designing to depict their brand image, promote their products/services and research its business. This provides them with a lot of opportunities to maximize their creativity while nurturing their business. No matter what they plan to design: a website, logo, brochure, business card or product replica, this doesn’t have to be a daunting task.

When there are mistakes in a web design, this can affect the company’s prospects in a negative way. On the other hand, a design, which is given a lot of thought can help businesses strike the interest of their target audience and gain their trust as well.

This article shows a list of the usual graphic design mistakes that can be avoided. In doing so, businesses can enhance their graphic design strategy to come up with flawless designs.

The Common Graphic Design Mistakes that Businesses can Avoid

Some common graphic mistakes that can be prevented to create great designs and impress an audience are the following;

Using Obsolete Effects

Viewers get easily attracted to designs that are creative with their new color schemes and font effects. So, businesses should not use designs with out-of-date effects. For instance, it would not be a good idea to use drop shadows effects, which were popular when graphic designing was just new simply because these will look obsolete.

Using Several Fonts

One of the major mistakes made by graphic designers is using too many fonts, which makes the message conveyed not too clear. Visitors get distracted with the different fonts in a design. When the fonts are consistent, there is continuity and it is easy to convey the company’s message and establish its brand identity. In choosing a font, it is important to consider the size of their piece and length of text.

Poor Execution of Gradients

It is best to avoid using too many poor-quality gradients. To create eye-striking gradients, they need to study the color wheel and know how to utilize trajectory graphic programs. They should see to it that the gradients match their design and are well executed.

Use of Stock Images

Including stock images are effective in projects that require some particular images. However, using stock images in excess can let a project look very unprofessional. In addition, their marketing piece should include new stock images instead of those that are common and which have been already used. It is best to get clear, high-resolution stock images.

Use of Raster Graphics

Raster images should never be used in creating brand logos. Instead, logos should be created using vector images since they can adjust to all mediums and get easily scaled with different sizes. On the other hand, raster images with their array of several color pixels have a difficult time scaling with different sizes.

Flood Damage Update – Top 10 Mistakes When Buying Flood Damage Insurance

What do you mean I’m not covered for flood damage? Unfortunately that’s what millions of homeowners are saying each year with shock and sometimes horror.

Of course they never thought it could happen to them, after all they don’t live in a flood zone. But nevertheless they experienced a record rain storm, sewage backup or county flood control failure. The good news was know one was injured, the bad news is they didn’t purchase the right flood insurance policy or worse – they had no policy at all.

To help you avoid this fate, here’s the top 10 mistakes most people make when it comes to buying flood damage insurance.

1. Assuming you need to live near a large body of water, a flood zone or low lying areas to benefit from flood insurances.

Most floods are caused by several different causes aside from living near a large body of water. For example, rain, snow or ice storms, hurricanes, and water or sewage backup, in addition to dam or other flood control failure and more.

2. Assuming your standard home insurance policy covers flood damage.

This is one of the biggest reasons why it’s so important to stay educated and up-to-date on insurance matters. Why? Because most people assume they’re covered by flood or water damage in their standard insurance policy. Surprise! You’re not.

The fact is most standard policies don’t cover flood or most water damage. For this you’ll need a separate policy or rider.

3. Assuming you can’t buy flood insurance if you’ve been turned down by traditional insurance companies.

You can buy flood insurance as long as your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program.

4. Assuming all flood insurance is too expensive.

The average flood insurance policy costs as little as $353 a year for coverage.

5. Assuming Federal Disaster Assistance will pay for flood damages.

Federal disaster assistance doesn’t pay for flood damages. At best it can help to provide low interest loans if you qualify – and only if the President declares the area you live in a disaster.

6. Assuming you don’t need flood insurance if you live in a low to moderate risk area.

Almost 25 percent of all flood insurance claims come from areas with low-to-moderate flood risk.

7. Assuming you must purchase a full flood insurance policy.

You may qualify for the Preferred Risk Policy (a lower-cost flood insurance policy) that provides contents coverage beginning at $39 per year.

8. Not finding out what’s covered by Replacement Cost and what’s covered by Actual Cash Value?

It’s important to find this out to make the best informed decision of what kind of policy to purchase and who to purchase it from.

9. Assuming you’re covered from flood damage if you rent.

Your landlords policy only insures the building not your personal property. However, you can purchase an insurance policy for your personal possessions.

10. Taking The First Policy You Come Across.

The best method of buying the most coverage for the best price is to comparison shop at least three different companies. You may be surprised at the price and/or service difference. By taking the time to follow and remember these 10 guidelines you’ll avoid the mistakes many people make when buying flood damage insurance.

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