MistakesSometimes you just need a little tough love and wisdom from Carol. Few people can serve up knowledge nuggets the way she can.

Carol ticks off five mistakes small business owners can easily avoid in her recent post on entrepreneur.com, “Not Promoting From Within? Ignoring Financial Statements? Don’t Be Stupid.”  She begins:

“As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to fall into the cliché of not seeing the forest through the trees. That often shows up in the form of doing really stupid things in your business that you would probably tell another business owner not to do.

Here are some of the top stupid things that companies do, so you can avoid the same fate.

1. Not promoting from within

Companies that have great people on staff and grow often look to the outside first to fill new positions. This means that loyal, skilled employees who know and understand the company end up feeling badly about themselves. They also feel under-appreciated and end up quitting, leaving you two positions to fill.

It can be a challenge to view a person who has always done a certain set of tasks or held one position in a different light, but you are doing your business a disservice not to create opportunities for advancement for your strongest employees.

2. Not taking a portfolio approach…

You’ll definitely want to read the rest of this post here.