Ladies, stop comparing the inside of you to the outside of someone else! Seriously! This was one of the best pieces of advice I ever received from my mentor and coach, Lou Tice, many years ago. Stop it!

I am convinced that there would be many more millionaire women business owners if they would all stop and recognize some of the stupid mistakes they are making. And how do I know this? Because I’ve made them all myself!

Over the past few weeks, I have had many heart-breaking conversations with women entrepreneurs who ‘say’ they want to make more money. My listening skills are pretty darn good and here’s what I am hearing – take note – this could be you!

COMMON BUSINESS MISTAKES:

1. Lack of belief in yourself and in your area of expertise.
2. Feeling like a fraud when it comes to increasing your fees.
3. Under-valuing and under-mining your brilliance.
4. Complicating……everything!
5. Comparing yourself to everyone else in business – and ‘assuming’ everyone else is doing better than you – is smarter than you – is more capable than you.
6. Waiting until…….you have another degree, another speaking opportunity, another client, next week, next year, working with another coach, taking another course…….fill in the blank. Enough already!
7. Hanging around mediocre entrepreneurs and expecting to rise to your level of excellence.
8. Being the lone ranger – thinking you can do it all, know it all – on your own. Not!
9. Giving away your services……like, for free! Stop doing that.
10. Negative self-talk coming out the ying-yang. What’s that all about?
11. Not investing in yourself or in your business. You’ll NEVER grow a business that way.
12. Doing everything yourself. How’s that working for you?
13. Not travelling to go to events where you can network and learn from the experts. ‘It’s too far.” – give me a break!
14. Sitting on the fence………
15. Not making decisions that will positively impact your future.

Have I hit a nerve with you yet? Yes? GOOD!

I want you to pick just 3 things from the list above and get to work on changing those items. Don’t know where to go for the answers, or the ‘how to’ (which is another big mistake many of you make!) – you don’t need to know the ‘how’ before you move forward in growing your business.

FIND SOMEONE WHO DOES KNOW! Two months of 2013 have passed. What in the world are you waiting for? Afraid of making a mistake – have you read the success story of Edison? Well, there you go. Take it to heart.

Listen – if you think that being an entrepreneur is supposed to be easy (where’s that button, LOL?) – you’re wrong. But it doesn’t have to be as difficult as many of you are making it out to be. It’s ok to fail – but to continue making the mistakes listed above is totally unacceptable.

Get on with it – people are waiting for what you have to offer. Get out of your own way!

Which mistake, from the list above, is holding YOU back? Please share your thoughts!