Yesterday, I updated my Owner Ollie article. Understand that "Owner Ollie" isn't my choice of terminology, nor is his description. I've worked with millennial founders, 30 somethings as well as business owners that were older than me and needed to be updated. My clients have been male, female, college educated and experienced tradespeople. Every one of them, professionals, consultants, distributors, agencies, value added resellers was really good at something, but the reason that we worked together wasn't what they were good at. It was always something else or a combination of something elses that they may not have known was an issue and didn't know there was a solution. In no particular order, here they are.

1. They don't have a business plan.
2. They have the wrong business plan.
3. Their business plan isn't about their goal.
4. They love technology.
5. They don't use technology.
6. They're shy.
7. They're extroverted.
8. They're slick.
9. They know their KPIs.
10. They believe in the law of averages.
11. They have enterprise sales experience.
12. They have no sales experience.
13. They don't have a professional network.
14. They believe that their network is full of prospective customers.
15. They don't have a reputation.
16. They don't have a good reputation.
17. They care too much about what people think of them.
18. They don't know how to learn what people think of them.
19. They're excitable.
20. They sell the wrong way.
21. They buy the wrong way.
22. They think that buyers need their stuff.
23. They think that their stuff is why buyers buy it.
24. They aren't find-able on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc
25. They're stuck in the 20th Century.
26. They don't have witnesses.
27. They don't have relevant, non-salesy articles or literature.
28. They don't make it easy for buyers to learn about them.
29. They're not transparent.
30. They don't know how to communicate by email, chat, voice, video, etc.
31. They don't have a website.
32. Their website doesn't get found.
33. Their website isn't visitor friendly.
34. Their website isn't their best salesperson.
35. They don't know who's visiting their website.
36. They don't know why someone is visiting their website.
37. They don't know how to engage with a website visitor.
38. They trust the wrong people.
39. They don't trust the wrong people.
40. They don't know how to trust or figure out who to trust.
41. They don't know that everybody has an agenda.
42. They don't know and can't figure out what the agenda is.
43. They talk too much.
44. They don't ask enough questions.
45. They don't ask good questions.
46. They don't know what they don't know.
47. They don't know if or when their emails get opened or read.
48. They don't know what pages their website visitors are reading.
49. They don't know where their buyer is in their buying process.
50. They don't know what their buyer's buying process is.
51. They don't know how to ask about their buyer's process.
52. They've never lost.
53. They've never won.
54. They're a solo.
55. They have the wrong partner.
56. They've hired the wrong person.
57. They're desperate.
58. They're content with the status quo.
59. Their family isn't supportive.
60. They don't have an end game, an exit strategy or a drop dead indicator.
61. They don't have a bed time.
62. They're ignoring their family.
63. They can't say, "No."
64. They can't say, "Yes."
65. They don't have the right self-image.
66. They don't know how others see them.
67. They don't have useful tools.
68. They don't know how to determine the usefulness of tools.
69. They're intimidated by successful founders.
70. They're not respectful of successful founders.
71. They don't know how to talk with successful founders.
72. They don't have a clearly defined, "Why?".

Here's the deal. If you start a business today, the odds say that you will not be in business 10 years from now. There's a lot that can go wrong and these 72 points are only the beginning.

Truth be told, I intended to plug some friends in this article because I think they can help you avoid some of these problems. Brand Builders can help with a template for your website. Hubspot can help you know who's visiting and what they're looking at. Drift can help you engage with people on your website. Databox can help you pull data from several platforms and make sense of it and the folks at Brand Builders can help you with everything Hubspot, Drift. Databox and a lot more. In addition, they also work closely with me if your issues lie in converting visitors to customers. However, like I said, it didn't flow that way. So, I have three suggestions.

1. If you'd like to reach out to Brand Builders, use this link.
2. If you'd like to talk about engagement, conversion or sales growth, contact me.
3. And if I missed and obstacle, add it in the comments or if you'd like clarification on any of the traps, ask it in the comments and I'll make the clarification my next blog post.