People with ADHD often have the traits that make them ideal small business owners. The Small Business Administration estimated that over 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years. For some of these small businesses failure is inevitable, sometimes there is nothing you can do to stop a business from failing. However in many of the cases the owners made key mistakes that could have been corrected. The Women's Enterprise Centre has a list of the Top 10 reasons why small businesses fail. I really liked the list and will go over how ADHD entrepreneurs can overcome the reasons on the list.
I think that if you ask the majority of ADHD business owners they will tell you that marketing is a personal strength. On the surface there are several aspects of marketing that would seem to suit ADHD business owners. Marketing requires passion and creativity, aspects where ADHD business owners typically excel.
However there are several marketing mistakes that ADHD business owners are more prone to make.
1. Inconsistency - In order for marketing to be effective it needs to be done on a consistent basis. It could take several times for your audience to respond to your marketing. The message that you are trying to send to your audience also needs to be fairly consistent, mixed messages will confuse potential customers. Therefore it is important to ask yourself what key points about your business you want to communicate to your customers, and to make sure your customers are receiving your message.
2. Not responding to feedback - An important part of marketing is getting feedback from your customers to see how they view your business. Owners often downplay the role of customer feedback because they are so focused on delivering a product or service.
3. Too much creativity – Adults with ADD are drawn to visual cues, and ADD entrepreneurs tend to focus on the visual portion of their marketing. While the visual cues are important, they are worthless if the consumer is not getting the message that you want to give them. The extra creativity can also lead to overspending on marketing, and unnecessary spending can doom a growing business to failure.