As a internet marketing consultant having worked with many different businesses I've seen a lot of foul-ups in my career. In this article I'll just like to address 7 of these mistakes that have crippled or handicapped many companies that otherwise could have been very successful.

1. Failure to differentiate your business by showing unique benefits you provide customer.

Some may call this Unique Selling Position (USP) or a host of other titles meaning very same thing, but you want to show how you are different from your competition. Even if you are selling a very common product you can still differentiate yourself from your competition by picking one unique quality.

If you own a pizza place then maybe you are only business in area that delivers after midnight or offer star-shaped pizzas. Whatever will help you to stand out from other pizza places will help you to stand out in customer's mind. Think about how many credit card companies, gas stations, bakeries … and a host of other businesses that offer similar services to other companies.

Differentiate and you'll win.

2. Failure to test your advertising strategies.

There are many companies that run various ads. This includes Yellow Pages, radio spots, newspapers and direct mail. Yet they cannot determine which ads are doing well and which are just a waste of money. This is because they do not test to see where their results are coming from.

Any business should have some parameter by which they measure where they are getting results and where their advertising is losing money. Very large corporation are particularly guilty of this because they have large adverting budgets. They can afford to do 'branding' advertising that is not intended to bring a direct measurable response. A small business owner cannot afford such luxury however.

So test, measure and use only what works.

3. Marketing to 'everybody'.

Any business should have a niche or target audience that they market to. Except you are selling water your target audience cannot be universal population. And even if you were selling water you may not be able to reach all languages and some people already have an abundance.

With over 25 years of research and experience, we have observed countless groups struggle with activities in our Team Building Seminars. These groups all had same common denominators, whether they were strangers or intact work teams, that became apparent during first activity in which they were asked to work effectively together.

At least four issues were found to inhibit these start-up groups from functioning as a team:

1. Task fixation, process blindness
2. Power struggles
3. Fight versus flight
4. Stereotyping

Individual members justify any behavior as okay if it contributes to achieving end-product – successful completion of tasks needed in achieving goal. Little or no concern was exhibited for how group functioned during (teambuilding) goal – process. We were able to magnify this view by placing time limits on performance of our exercises within team building seminar.

With this view, any means justify end, like sacrificing team members, forming sub-groups to exclusion of others, or not getting commitment of all team members, are justified under rubric of getting task accomplished: “We had to do that to get job done.” Who can argue with success, even if there were casualties along way? You can, if you were one of casualties.

In a new group that is fixated totally on task success, individuals focus on their own needs to exclusion of needs of others. There is no support, recognition that individual differences are a potential benefit, deferring of egos, brainstorming, seeking commitment, or flexibility. However subtle or covert, selfish competition is justified as necessary to expedite achievement of goal.

Internal conflicts generally make up part of dynamics when establishing a new group. Leadership: do we need a leader, who is going to lead, or will we follow appointed leader? Teams asked to perform leaderless tasks or act as a volunteer group struggle most with issues of leadership. In many of our team building seminars, groups explain that many of our exercises would have been easier if we had appointed a leader. Yet, after having experimented with appointing a leader, we observed group’s behavior remained same. The only difference is that one person, leader, becomes frustrated by his/her inability to get groups cooperation and battle for influence and power still continues.

Dominant individuals scramble to be recognized and gain influence with others. Disagreements over ideas quickly are positioned as win-lose alternatives. Accepting my ideas mean rejecting yours. We have seen high-achieving executives’ egos keep them from “dimming their headlights” and deferring to other team members.

Who’s in and who’s out is another conflict which often exists as part of dominant-individual struggle. Cliques, groups within groups, and “We” versus “Them” are terms used to describe this situation. In new groups this struggle is fostered by need to find someone who will support your (teambuilding) ideas. Once found, divisiveness of positions or lobbying for a majority vote starts. The “outs” resent “ins” and will resist their ideas, sabotage their plans, or simply refuse to be fully functioning members of team.

Likewise, in many of our team building seminars, following fight or flight behaviors were observed:

• Unwillingness to listen to others
• Fear of speaking up or fighting for a position
• Low trust in other members, causing withdrawal
• Taking task too lightly
• Little group planning
• Non-involvement
• Silence as preferable to vulnerability

Regardless of behavior, result is same: team loses resources, energy, and creativity. Decisions are made and plans are implemented with less than total group input and support. It is frustrating to be a team member when fight or flight behavior is exhibited. Unless team is organizationally mandated to remain in existence, this dissatisfaction and frustration among members will cause it to perish.