What are the biggest mistakes business owners make — and what do you only learn after years of running businesses?In this episode of Not Finished Yet, Mark Kennedy looks back on more than 35 years in business to talk about the mistakes, decisions and lessons that have shaped the way he builds and runs businesses today.This isn't a story about getting everything right. It's about what happens when you get things wrong — hiring the wrong person, keeping someone too long, chasing turnover instead of profit, underpricing to win work, taking on the wrong customers, trying to do everything yourself and continuing with decisions long after the evidence tells you they aren't working.Mark explores 10 common business mistakes, including:• Confusing turnover with profit, cash and genuine business success• Believing every customer is a good customer• Underpricing just to win the work• Hiring people because you're desperate rather than because they're right• Keeping the wrong person in the wrong role for too long• Becoming the bottleneck in your own business• Failing to properly understand your financial numbers• Building a business around individuals instead of strong processes• Throwing more money at decisions because you've already invested too much to stop• Assuming a bigger business automatically means a better businessBut there's a bigger question running through the episode:When does a bad decision actually become a mistake?Mark argues that some of the most expensive mistakes in business aren't the original decisions that turn out to be wrong. They're the moments when you know something isn't working and carry on anyway — because of pride, ego, loyalty, fear, sunk cost or simply because changing direction is uncomfortable.The episode also tackles one of the hardest questions for any entrepreneur or business owner:Have you built a business — or have you simply built yourself a very demanding job?If everything depends on you, every decision comes through you and the company can't function when you're away, what have you really built?Mark finishes with the Not Finished Yet Test: seven questions for business owners and leaders to answer honestly about their customers, people, profitability, decisions, systems and their own role in the company.Whether you're starting a business, growing a company, running an established SME, leading someone else's business or considering becoming an entrepreneur, this is a practical and personal look at the lessons that rarely appear in a business plan.Because 35 years of experience doesn't mean you stop making mistakes.Hopefully, it means you stop making the same ones.Not Finished Yet with Mark Kennedy — real conversations about business, leadership, management, experience, reinvention and what comes next.#Leadership #BusinessOwners #Entrepreneurship #BusinessLessons #NotFinishedYet