97CommonActsOfSabotage-ACDA

Copyright © 2010, Adam C. Dudley & Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

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97 Common Acts of Sabotage That Kill Small Businesses and Cause

Suffering in Entrepreneurs Startup and Strategy

1. Starting a business that isn’t in alignment with your ideal lifestyle and/or that isn’t compatible with the other aspects of your life (e.g. family, recreation, health, etc)

2. Working without a strategy because you think strategy is only something for large companies

3. Making random day-‐to-‐day decisions without having a long-‐term strategy to guide you

4. Trying to make your business all things to all people instead of choosing to fulfill a specific niche position in the marketplace

5. Working without objectives, projects, priorities, and targets

6. Working without benchmarks for performance

7. Not understanding the power of strategic alignment in a business

8. Setting unrealistic goals

9. Failing to plan how you’re going to eventually take yourself out of the business

Marketing

10. Using an industry standard business model by default and not looking outside your industry for a more profitable model that will give you a powerful competitive edge

11. Not knowing how to use direct marketing


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12. Spending too little time on the marketing of your business 13. Being overly concerned with turning a few people off with your marketing 14. Working without a clear, compelling, competitively differentiating Unique

Selling Proposition 15. Not using a strong guarantee to reverse risk for your customer (yes, there is

a way to do this in any business)

16. Not having the self confidence to test price elasticity and use premium pricing models

17. Using agency brand-‐driven advertising in a small business

18. Not recognizing and leveraging the power of celebrity in your business

19. Trying to build a corporate brand instead of using your own personality in a small business

20. Delegating marketing instead of mastering the marketing of the business

21. Not learning how to maximally leverage free marketing tools like social media

22. Not surveying customers/clients regularly and then finding new and creative ways (additional products and services) to meet their wants and needs

23. Not knowing the difference between features and benefits and not communicating the emotion-‐level benefits of your products and services to your customers/clients effectively

24. Getting seduced into using the marketing tactic of the day/month/year without adequate understanding of the strategic relevance of said tactic

25. Not understanding exposure frequency in marketing and how to use it

26. Overestimating the importance of a few complaints from customers or clients

27. Not having the self-‐confidence to force operations personnel to perform marketing processes to your standards

28. Being afraid to stand out in the market too much

29. Doing things that are not in alignment with your customer/client expectations of your business

30. Not using information marketing in your business

31. Not looking at and communicating about your business through the eyes of your customers and their needs and wants


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32. Not knowing what business you’re REALLY in

Productivity

33. Spending too much time with customers and clients that aren’t qualified to do business with you in the first place

34. Working at things that will not moving you measurably closer to your goals 35. Believing in multitasking as a good skill to have and use 36. Neglecting physical fitness and proper nutrition as a personal productivity

booster 37. If you have employees, not recognizing that they will only respect what you

inspect 38. Adding more things to your to-‐do list than you subtract or eliminate 39. Not taking recovery and renewal breaks every 90-‐minutes and every few

days of work to keep your energy up 40. Not knowing when you’re naturally at your most productive during the day 41. Not continuously challenging yourself to become a little more effective (this

doesn’t mean to work longer and harder) 42. Working longer and harder to overcome business challenges

43. Not establishing timelines and deadlines for the completion of projects and tasks

44. Taking on too many projects at once 45. Doing low-‐leverage, low-‐wage, repetitive technical work yourself instead of

out-‐tasking it 46. Trying to do everything yourself because you think no one can do what you

do well enough 47. Not spending adequate time developing and refining business systems

(systems set you free to do your highest leverage work)

48. Abusing and being obsessed with technology

49. Not consciously creating positive habits and breaking negative ones

50. Not combining goals with rewards

51. Working without drop dead deadlines and a personal commitment to get important things done (regardless of fires or emergencies that will always come up anyway)

52. Working without priorities and a list of high-‐leverage activities that use your natural strengths

53. Allowing others to rob you of your valuable time and energy with your implied permission


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54. Trying to accommodate and satisfy everybody

55. Not completing at least one high-‐leverage, wealth-‐producing project per day…no matter what

56. Not recognizing that most problems are process issues that can be fixed

57. Trying to make things perfect…good enough is good enough and returns on time and energy invested diminish at a certain point

58. Working in an environment that encourages you to be unproductive

59. Not selecting time management techniques that work for you and your unique work style (take the Kolbe A Index at www.Kolbe.com)

60. Confusing activity with productivity

61. Consuming too much media

62. Being inattentive to the task at hand…allowing your mind to wander at its will

63. Using your self-‐diagnosed entrepreneurial “A.D.D” as an excuse and a crutch for not learning how to harness and focus your creative energy

64. Tying up mental resources by keeping it all in your head

65. Maintaining endless, un-‐prioritized to-‐do lists

66. Not chunking down larger projects into manageable milestones and mini-‐projects

67. Letting business dominate your personal life

68. Not asking if there is profit in what you are doing at any given moment during the work day

69. That the latest and greatest productivity plan, program, seminar or software is going to solve your productivity problems

Personal Growth

70. Not realizing that you must F.O.C.U.S. (Follow One Course Until Successful) and choosing instead to opportunity hop whenever the going gets tough

71. Saying “I can’t because…” instead of “How can I...” or “What would it look like if I could…”


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72. Trying to do it alone without investing time and money in finding and engaging mentors, coaches, consultants, and other experts

73. Not investing in your own personal growth and development 74. Learning for the sake of learning…lacking a personal development plan for

each stage of your business’ growth 75. Trying to strengthen weaknesses

76. Being personally out of alignment with what you’re trying to achieve in your business

77. Working without a crystal clear and present “why”

78. Needing to be well liked by everyone (entrepreneurship is not a popularity contest)…you must be impervious to criticism to play the game successfully

79. Buying the sexiest new resource instead of being resourceful

80. Not continuously examining and working on your own self-‐imposed limitations as dictated by your self-‐image

81. Not taking 100% responsibility for your results in business and in life

82. Being too hard on yourself and comparing yourself to others too intensely

83. Not being hard enough on yourself in regards to your integrity and honoring your commitments

84. Whining and complaining about the economy or other external circumstances instead of taking creative action to solve your problems

85. Neglecting to develop and use the power of your personal network

86. Avoiding dealing with nagging issues and unfinished business till a later date

87. Not seeking to find the wisdom in mistakes and failures

88. Not surgically removing people from your business and your life that are a drain on your time and energy

89. Waiting until all of your “ducks are in a row” before taking action towards your dreams

90. Waiting for permission to succeed from someone else, yourself, or some phantom authority or entity

91. Not belonging to a mastermind group comprised of success-‐minded, high-‐performing business owners that have similar dreams and goals to your own


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92. Lacking stick-‐to-‐itiveness

93. Not setting stretch goals and constantly expanding your comfort zone by taking on new challenges

94. Refusing to accept that the most likely cause of the obstacles you face in your business are a result of your own doing

95. Not realizing that confidence is a decision…not something you are born with or without, or something you just have or don’t have

96. Tolerating not waking up every morning with a zest for life and excited about what you’re going to do in your business that day

97. Defining and labeling yourself by what you do for a living


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Attention All Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Consultants, Sole Practitioners, Coaches, and Self-Employed Professionals…

Are you feeling left behind? Suffering silently as other entrepreneurs make

it BIG…even in this recession? All you need is ONE idea, properly implemented and executed to take your business to the next level. It’s that little bit of outside perspective from a competent professional that can break you “out of the box” and accelerate your growth. Adam Dudley provides an array of marketing, strategy, and productivity services and can provide fresh insight and new angles to solving your business problems. Quotations and analysis are provided in a Strategic Review, which is a no-‐holds-‐barred, 30-‐minute phone consultation. Here is what we accomplish together in this fast-‐paced, zero-‐nonsense session: • Cash Flow Problems: Lying awake at night worried about maxxing out your credit cards or that line of credit? I can help you clear this hurdle with specific cash flow strategies. I’ll give you my best secrets for turning around your business with effective, low-‐cost marketing tactics that you can do in house. • Things Not Going According to Plan: You’re all too familiar with how easily your business can spin out of control when your time is limited and you have fires to put out. I’ll show you how to take back control of your time and ensure that you are working on the most important things first in your business. The 30-‐Minute Strategic Review is conducted by the principal of our company, Mr. Adam C. Dudley, who has started, operated, and helped grow 4 "from-‐scratch" from $0 in annual sales to over $2,000,000 in annual sales in several different industries. Please be assured that this consultation will not be a thinly disguised sales presentation; it will consist of the best intelligence Mr. Dudley can supply in a thirty minute time span. The 30-‐Minute Strategic Review is $182, but please be advised that the call must be strictly limited to 30-‐minutes. This consult will typically take place within 1-‐2 weeks of your inquiry. To secure a time for this consultation, please email [email protected] and his assistant, Eve, will advise you regarding available time slots. She will also provide you with a pre-‐consultation questionnaire that will prepare both you and us to get maximum value in the shortest amount of time.


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What people are saying... “Adam is the kind of Manager that gets the job done. From the moment I met him I believed him to be a powerhouse. He has confidence and direction. He is goal oriented and stays focused and on task. I would be proud to have Adam working with me on any project. He has good ethics and moral character. Liz Otts, President Florida Business Expo” June 25, 2009 “Adam is a young, sincere, and action-‐taking entrepreneur and entrepreneur supporter. If you need somebody to help you get your business off the ground, he is the guy!” May 16, 2006 Michael Simmons “Adam is a true entrepreneur. He approaches things from a unique standpoint. Always searching to make things more profitable, more streamlined and more efficient. Adam is dedicated, attentive and passionate. He is an asset to anyone who has the opportunity to work with him. I give him my highest recommendation.” February 4, 2009 Jimmy Vee, Partner/CEO, Gravitational Marketing “Adam's business acumen is plainly obvious after spending just a few moments engaged in conversation. He has accumulated a range of skills through his extensive, high-‐level business experiences uncommon at his age. If you want to work with a serious business superstar, then take a close look at Adam because he can dramatically impact any venture in a positive way.” January 26, 2009 Julie Brumlik, Dremu.com “If you're looking for an innovative and bright person to do business with, two words about Adam: "Do It." Among other things, I've had Adam speak to my business students when I was teaching at a local college and he not only was inspiring to them, but it's evident that Adam is a true entrepreneur at heart.” January 21, 2009 Brian Collins, President, The Brainstorm Institute “Adam is a brilliant marketer and entrepreneur, with the ability to tackle a wide variety of tasks across multiple roles. A quick learner and a master networker, Adam's impressive skills will no doubt lead to a bright future in his business career.” January 12, 2009 Mike Brodsky, Vice President -‐ Wealth Management, Smith Barney “Adam Dudley is the consummate strategist for putting together new deals and getting them to fruition. A man of great integrity that I admire, respect and highly recommend.” January 12, 2009 Gary S. Mezo Nanobiotech “Adam is extremely dedicated to his work and is always 100% committed to the task at hand. I've always been very impressed with the results of Adam's work and


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entrepreneurial talent.” September 6, 2007 Steve Mort, US correspondent, Feature Story News “Adam is a sharply focused executive and a selfless team player who is a pleasure to work with. He's a very creative collaborator who constantly strives for excellence and relevance and brings great value to any project. If Adam is involved, the chances for success are increased considerably.” September 5, 2007 Marc Middleton, Founder/CEO, Bolder Broadcasting Inc. and Growing Bolder Media Group “Adam -‐ is an incredibly professional, with great compassion in everything he does, a self-‐starter with endless energy. Trustworthy, reliable and personable.” September 4, 2007 Steven J. Miguel, CEO, Design2Keys

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97CommonActsOfSabotage-ACDA