Avoiding business pitfalls isn’t always easy the first time around. Sometimes, amateur entrepreneurs miss these a thousand times.

I get it, we all want to make an impact in the world, leave a legacy, etc. But, you have to be extremely focused on growing a better business and getting more customers than your competitors. A business is there to make money. If it’s not, it’s not a business. So avoid these pitfalls and you will be much closer to your achieving your business goals and dreams.

The 3 Most Common Small Business Pitfalls

1. No plans

No plans? How come?

Small business owners who think that they can keep doing what they love doing without a plan will eventually fail. This is one of the most dangerous pitfalls in business.

Going about your business without a plan will get you nowhere despite the fact that you may be gaining big revenues at the moment. The size of the revenue is not a guarantee that your business will be successful in a year or ten years from now. It simply means you are lucky your product and service are interesting. Without a plan, how long do you think your customers and employees will stay interested?

Plans are the foundation of every business, not money and not the products and services. It is not even the people behind the business, no matter how great they may be. When you make plans before starting a business, you will be ready for anything that will come your way. Plans are for the business in general (big picture) and they are also for every little area in your business as well.

[RELATED: How to Create a Business Plan]

2. Website mess

Some businesses online fall for this. They set up a website for their business then leave it at that – they do not manage it. A website with links that do not work at all is a no-good website!

Not managing or organizing your website will convey a message to your audience about how disorganized a business person you are. Your visitors may not notice that the first time but once they see the problems – links not working, posts not updated, spam ads, etc. – they will stop visiting your site, and this will make you look unprofessional in the way you handle your business.

If you need to hire someone to manage your website, do so. Just make sure to keep it tidy and customer-friendly.

When you have an organized website, you can keep your visitors and help them remember to become return customers in the long run. Learn to manage your site and minimize or totally eradicate the mess.

3. Targeting the General Public

If you think targeting the general public will get you more traffic and more customers, you are wrong! And what makes that wrong?

Visitors will get to your site which is great because you offer them general information. But, if your goal is to make a profit, you are very vulnerable of losing them to competitors if you don’t make more specific offers.

Your visitors will want more than to receive emails from you on interesting topics you’ve published. They’ll want to receive emails that are related to their wants or needs. A specific target is not just the gender, age, location, or job as many internet marketers would have you believe. A specific target are those who have the same requests in mind, the same need and want that you can help them with.

You may be aiming your product, service, or idea to gender-specific audience like men or women. Not all of the men or women you’re aiming at would be interested on what you have to offer. You may be talking about fashion targeting women, yet, not all women are interested in fashion. Some would probably be interested in nutrition or family-building – you get the point.

If you are starting up a business, make sure you avoid these pitfalls. Start your business with a plan, create a simple, yet effective website, and find your target market.