Small Business Lessons: Ditch the Bad Habits

No matter how many things you’re doing right, there are a few things that you could potentially be doing wrong—and that could be causing you to lose your creativity, your sense of honor, or even your reputation.

Take a few words of advice from these fine sources to fine-tune your day-to-day business dealings and keep yourself on the straight and narrow. Ditch the bad business habits today and help grow your business the right way!

• How to Make Amends for Bad Behavior by Penelope Trunk

Regardless of what you’ve done—or failed to do—the old cliche is true: actions do speak louder than words. In business and in life, Penelope Trunk shares her experiences with making amends and moving forward. (Spoiler alert: beating yourself up over past transgressions is not on the list.)

• Link With Love by Ameena Falchetto

There’s a lot of pressure on small business owners to be original, create unique content, and be “new” and “fresh.” Of course, you do not live in a microcosm. Ideas flow, influence other ideas, and are built off of other ideas. This is fine—even expected. What’s not fine is leaning heavily on one person’s idea without giving credit where credit is due—or, even worse, shamelessly stealing it and calling it your own. Ameena Falchetto tells us how this once happened to her, what you can do about it if it happens to you, and how to avoid doing it to someone else.

• 12 Bad Habits That Could Kill Your Business by Business Tips

Full of tips for how to be a better businessperson—and a better person in general, for that matter—Victorio Abrugar lays out a set of bad habits you should knock off, immediately. Among them are lying (to your customer, to your vendors, or to your employees—it’s all a no-no), disrespecting (the same set of people), and being greedy, impatient, or unprepared. Great advice any Zen master would be proud of.