Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In an article by thestreet.com concerning five entrepreneurs and the things they learned on the way to success, they offered five of the biggest mistakes they made at the beginning of running their businesses.

Here is what they said were the worse mistakes:

1. "Being overly ambitious and spreading myself too thin. In the beginning, we were open seven days a week for lunch and dinner." This person owned a restaurant and had to adjust by determining when they made the most profits and changed the hours based upon that information.

2. "Not getting enough funding at the get-go and not having a clearer sales and marketing plan." Their business was based upon consulting over the long-term, as a result they didn't have much left to develop the business.

3. One owner said that she had trust problems with her original partners. "Every day is a whole new scene, now I'm a bit more cautious before I make decisions." This one hits home as years ago I bought a really profitable business that I took a partner in on that I didn't do enough due diligence on. I got out of that because the circumstances were so bad that I didn't enjoy any of it at all anymore.

4. "Blindly trusting people." One owner had to pay back taxes because they simply trusted the company to do thinks accurately. The old saying about "trust but verify" comes into play here. Not all problems are from people without integrity; a lot of times it is from incompetence. Each one can cost you.

5. "...overestimating or underestimating the complexities of the business, opportunities, people or yourself. Be prepared to make a lot of mistakes. Hopefully, 80 percent of the time you're right." This is one of those that the great majority of new business owners make. Usually it comes from lack of experience in the business they're running.

All of these mistakes come from simply not getting enough knowledge about the business you're operating. While we should never hesitate to get involved in a business we want to run, we do need to understand your blind spots and get the professionals we need to fill them in. Do that and you can concentrate on working on your business rather than always working in it.

What's been your worse rookie mistake?