Ooooo this is a fun one! Great subject!!
Which one can I pick? haha
Hiring - I was 0 for 2 on operations managers because I was so desperate to get someone in that I ignored things that were red flags. This ultimately costed be tens of thousands in sunk costs in to salaries, lost production, and my time training.
Jobs we don't take - I started out as a handyman and I realized there are some jobs we just don't take. Probably the biggest thing we changed was going away from 1/4 day jobs (low minimums). People would run my guys around their house trying to maximize their $250 or whatever is was then we'd get a call back on it. So I hardly made money to begin with, now I'm losing because we have a go back. I raised our min charge to a half day so at least I can make a few hundred bucks on the job, and we set the expectation of what's getting done and what's a reasonable time frame for it. No running around, way fewer call backs.
Financial - DON"T HIRE CONSULTANTS. Well if you do hire consultants, hire someone that is DOING something, not giving you things to work on. I hired this group that was telling me they'd give me an "operating system" for the company. But all they did was give me "good ideas" and homework. Especially early on, if you are paying someone money, they need to be doing the work. There are plenty of business coaching courses that are way less than "individualized plans" from some guy that has just bought businesses and gives you some canned business plan spreadsheet. They need to have deliverables with clear deadlines.
I have others and I'm sure I'll have more in the future haha I hope not but that's how we learn right?
