TOP 5 MISTAKES IN BUSINESS

Mistake No. 1. You don’t know your clients

The main reason why many business are closing in Kyrgyzstan is a failure to communicate with the target audience, which leads to an inappropriate offer of a product or a service. Consequently, this results in a lack of customers and, eventually, low profits.

To turn the situation around, start thinking about who your products and services target group is. Analyze your customers. What are they like? What do they prefer? Why do they buy from you? Answers to these questions will help you to develop truly necessary products that will meet the expectations of your customers and create the ground for subsequent sales.

Mistake No. 2. You want do everything on your own

One of the most common mistakes of entrepreneurs is the desire to do everything solely, because they believe that they can lose control and think that nobody will do anything better than they do.

For business development, it is necessary to delegate responsibilities, to give another person the opportunity to show his/her own abilities and talents. Employees may make mistakes, but in this case, steer them on the right direction. One person cannot do everything at once, so say remembering Steve Jobs: "We hire smart people to tell us what to do." Search and engaging talented people is one of the primary objective of any entrepreneur.

Mistake No. 3. Lack of strategic planning

The main planning fallacies include:

Vague distribution of responsibility areas between partners or employees;
Understatement of amount of estimated costs;
Too optimistic figures of expected income;
Absence of plan “B” if plan “A” failed for some reason;
Undervaluation of risks and activities of competitors.

A business plan is needed not only to obtain a loan for business development. Actually, it should reflect clear goals in the form of specific figures, volume of sales, profits and the timing for their achievement. This will help you coordinate actions if something goes wrong.

Mistake No. 4. Unqualified team

According to a Forbes research, 23% of small and medium businesses are closed due to improper team selection. Most entrepreneurs form teams on the basis of friendly relationship. It is enjoyable to work in such an environment, but it doesn’t compensate the lack of necessary skills and often causes stress.

You need to evaluate your own skills and identify vulnerabilities. Find the appropriate team members who will believe in the business and have the necessary skills that you lack. The right team with the necessary competencies plays a key role in achieving goals.

Mistake No. 5. Lack of funding

This results from erroneous miscalculations in the business plan, and often entrepreneurs run to an extreme: some skimp to save money, while others, on the contrary, start their business “in grand style”.

Funds must be allocated reasonably, because sometimes economy can reduce business efficiency. If you do not invest into infrastructure or do not hire more workers, in order to cut expenses, this will not bring you profit. Accordingly, the business will either stagnates or develop at a very slack pace.

In this case, there are various funding methods:

Attracting an investor, in in return of a certain share of the business;

Reinvestment of profits;
Business loan in a reasonable amount and at a reasonable interest rate, which will effectively serve for development of your business.

Kompanion Bank supports entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan and reduces interest rates on loans for development of small and medium businesses within the framework of the campaign.

For additional information, contact customer support service: 0 (312) 33-88-00, 88 00 (toll free from mobile operators of the KR) and the Bank’s branches.