Unattended & Neglected Situations can Trigger B.A.D.D.

In my first post below, I defined Business Attention Deficit Disorder or BADD, when a “business is characterized by unattended and neglected situations which, if left unchallenged, conspire to run and ultimately ruin a business.”

What are the unattended and neglected situations in a business?

For entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners there is always one component of your business – maybe it’s marketing, or operations, or human resources or financial or even strategy – that gets left behind because your attention is focused on one or more of the other components that you REALLY LIKE to do.

Everyone of us has our favorite part of the business and the part we leave until the last possible moment. It’s human nature.

But, by neglecting or not attending to one of these other areas, your business suffers. It may suffer in silence or it may be very visible. For instance, if your area of expertise within your business is marketing, you likely spend a good portion of your time doing a lot of marketing activities – attending luncheons, networking meetings, talking to media, advertising and working on the website.

And with all your attention on marketing to sell more you may not have noticed other activities going on within your business that are conspiring against all the wonderful marketing that’s occurring.

For instance, staff who are rude to customers (you wouldn’t know because you’re out marketing), or perhaps suppliers who are short shipping orders or perhaps your price list is 2 years old and all the new products and services have the old price or the pile of invoices you’re supposed to approve before they get sent out, sits in a pile on your desk while accounts receivable sits well over 90 days.

And you wonder why you’re not making money with all the efforts you’re putting in to marketing your business!

Your business is suffering from Business Attention Deficit Disorder. By focusing all your efforts and activities on the part of the business you, the entrepreneur, professional, or business owner like, and do well, you are neglecting the other important components. And these other components are conspiring to ruin your business.

All is not lost! In my next post I’ll include some strategies that can help.