Here’s my resume of recent moments that were not my best.

Small business owners are often isolated in their little world.

So when issues arise, they wonder if what they are experiencing is “normal.”

When I chat with other owners, there’s often a look of relief on their faces (“phew, I’m glad not just me”).

To help you feel less alone, here are some of my recent guffaws:

• I forgot to approve the payroll’s ACH over the Thanksgiving holiday, which left my staff at risk of not getting paid on time. As a result, I had to rush to the bank to wire funds directly to the payroll company.

• Instead of setting a reminder to call a client, I accidentally emailed her a meeting invitation that included my somewhat incoherent follow up notes.
• I waited too long to book a hotel for our franchise’s annual conference, and the hotel rooms were sold out.
• I got too involved in a minor issue instead of letting the employee handle and learn from it.
• I didn’t read the expiration date of a contract carefully, causing an unnecessary fire drill that could’ve been 100% avoided.

Nobody’s perfect. And if you were working at a big company, you would see people making mistakes like these all the time.

But since small business owners often work in isolation, we don’t have an understanding of just how often mistakes happen.

So, the next time the voice in your head beats you up over a mistake you’ve made, don’t listen to it. Mistakes happen to us all.

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