Sunday, May 3, 2009

Small Business Owners - Mistakes to Avoid

I agree with Rush on Business that Avoid These 11 Common Mistakes of Small Business Owners deserves republishing but I would add one:

"On the Texas Small Business Law Blog there is an helpful post on the common mistakes made by small business owners. The common mistakes listed by business attorney David Willis include:

1) Under-capitalization.
2) Failure to plan and adjust for growth.
3) Over-emphasis on the type of business organization.
4) Failure to understand the impact of an employee.
5) Failure to understand the impact of employees.
6) Not having an employee manual.
7) Thinking: 'I've got some experience, I can do this myself.'
8) Not keeping up with the paperwork.
9) Failure to plan for litigation.
10) Not having an electronic document retention policy in place.
11) Failure to consult an attorney."
My addition: get a Certified Public Accountant. Taxes - especially sales and employee withholding - can be fatal to a small business.