If you’ve managed to get a business off the ground, then you’re a special kind of crazy. You’ve put in the work to secure funding, faced unfavourable odds head on, and turned an idea into something physical. While congratulations are in order, there’s a lot more to success than the right mindset. Every business has the potential to be great, but you need to manage and maintain every last aspect as best as you can. Here, we’ll go through some of the most commonly overlooked areas of business. Make sure you’re not neglecting any of these, and there’ll be nothing holding back your business.

First of all, a lack of efficiency. You might scoff at the idea that you’re not being efficient, but don’t scroll down just yet! There’s a lot more to business efficiency than your personal work ethic. Obviously, you’re passionate about your business. This is what motivated you to start the operation in the first place. Sometimes though, this kind of passion can be the thing which holds a business back. Let’s say you get into your office in the morning, and you know you have to fill out an order. Later in the day, you’ll have a meeting on some new alternative marketing campaign. It can be pretty tempting to jump straight to the latter, and do a rushed job on the former. I know that writing a script for a new YouTube ad is much more interesting than sorting out your document management. However, this is no excuse to do a poor job on any area of your business. You should make efficiency a big point at your business, and prioritise tasks accordingly. If you’ve been pretty lenient about quotas and deadlines so far, then it may be time for a regime change. This brings me onto my next point.

Employee discipline is another commonly overlooked area in many new businesses. When you’re a start-up, being a little too lenient is pretty easy. You won’t have many staff members, and the whole company will feel very close-knit. Obviously, you don’t want to annoy the five or six people who are keeping your business running. As you grow though, becoming a bit more of a drill sergeant will become more and more of a necessity. When you take on more staff, there’ll be more of a gulf between you and them. Obviously, you don’t want to be too distant as a CEO. However, your image as the big boss is going to be somewhat inevitable. You’ll have to cater to this if you want to keep your business up and running. Make sure you’re monitoring performance, and taking action when it slips below your standards. Your leniency is also important to think about outside of the office. Don’t let suppliers, partners or even your customers treat you like a doormat. Once you do, it can be very hard to recover control.

It’s not uncommon for new business owners to neglect their stakeholders as well. Whether it’s employees, investors or partners, your stakeholders are extremely important, and should be treated as such. One of the most integral things to understand is their motivation. All your stakeholders will have an interest in your business in some form or another. When you figure out what motivates this interest, it will make all kinds of decisions a lot easier. If you make the wrong call, and get all your stakeholders angry, your business will suffer massively. However, when you understand why your stakeholders became stakeholders, you’ll find it much easier to keep them all happy. After you’ve developed a good enough relationship with these people, you’ll be able to push your luck a little further. An investor may not be too keen on one of your decisions, but they will have had a positive experience with you in the past. They’ll naturally want to see you succeed, and will be more supportive of all your decisions. Take good care of your stakeholders, and they’ll take good care of you in return!

Far too many business owners put short-term profits before their long-term goals. If you think you’re in danger of doing this, then make sure to turn it around quickly. Obviously, it’s important that your business makes money. Now that you’ve told your boss where to go, the profit margins of your company have a direct impact on your personal income. Times may be hard, but ensure that making money never comes before the long-term goals of your business. Sure, if you put profits first you might be able to pay for that loft extension you wanted. However, you may be slowing your whole company down in the long run. Think about where your business is going now, and where you want it to be in (x) years. Sacrificing revenue takes a lot of self-discipline, but is ultimately worth it.

The final thing you can’t afford to neglect is self-analysis. You may have everything running smoothly right now, but this doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Individual industries, and the global economy they make up, are constantly changing. Your company needs to be changing with them if you want it to carry on being successful. After you’ve made a change to your business, be sure to keep tabs on how it’s playing out. This is especially important immediately after the change, but it should never really halt. If you’ve splashed out on some massive ad campaign to bring in new customers, don’t forget about your service. If an employee is well-known for productivity, make sure they’re living up to their reputation. Making a business great isn’t a one-off job, so don’t treat it as one.

I hope reading this post hasn’t thrown you into a full-blown panic attack! Even if you’ve been neglecting all of these aspects, it shouldn’t be too late to turn things around. Running a business is hard work, but the rewards you can gain are incredible. Don’t cheat yourself out of them by brushing over these important areas of business.