There’s a breakneck pace that many new solo business owners assume. With an infinite number of things to do, and about a dozen hats to wear, it gets overwhelming, fast.

And, that’s nothing compared to what happens once the business actually has some momentum under it. That’s why one of my clients with a brand-new business was asking me: “Craig, how do you get it all done? Your business has about 100 times more going on in it than mine does, and I’m overwhelmed just with what I’m trying to get done.”

If you really want to kill the “golden goose” – a great client with a terrific project – make one or more of the following mistakes:

1. Not meeting the client’s expectations
2. Mishandling a client crisis
3. Taking on more than you can handle
4. Putting all your eggs in one basket
5. Up cash creek without a paddle

Whether you have a wonderful business idea – or – you are investigating business opportunities for yourself or a client, it is critical that you put each idea through a “reality check” – an analysis to determine if they are truly valid and worthy of further effort. All of your ideas must have a demonstrated need, ready market, and ability to provide a solid return on investment.

Is the idea feasible in the marketplace? Is there demand? Can it be done? Are you able to pull together the persons and resources to pull it off before the window of opportunity closes? These questions must be considered and answered.

Content rules. Whether you’re tweeting, writing blog posts, or contributing to a LinkedIn group discussion, it is content that drives conversations and connects your professional services firm to its social network. But creating content that your audience will want to read can be challenging.

Imagine you’re reading this paragraph in a consulting firm’s blog:

An organization’s business architecture revolves around five broad areas viz. the customer segment, scope of products or services, geographic coverage, strategic differentiation and profit pools. During the course of an M&A, organizations tend to alter one or more parameters of their business architecture which will impact their IT strategy needed to enhance customer reach, add efficiencies, reduce cost, add competitive advantage or enable business processes that could bolster any of the aforementioned.

Difficult to read*, isn’t it? Too often, B2B firms create excruciating content just like this and push it out to their social media channels. Then they wonder why they get so little engagement in return.

Poisoning an employee? What does that mean? I’ve never hurt anyone anytime in my life! Deliberately yes – likely what you think is the case may not be true! Why? Because poisoning an employee means you’ve removed one or more employee’s sense of empowerment and ability to positively impact the efficiencies/effectiveness of what they do for the company!

What is the typical result of “POISONING AN EMPLOYEE”? Two possible results – there may be many more: 1) they quit and you’re left in the cold having to replace them quickly as their loyalty to the company is no longer there or 2) worse yet – they stay with the company but they’re there only physically – they no longer care and do “just enough work” with less energy and drive than they had before you poisoned them.