This is the first in an ongoing series on this blog "little business, big mistake". It's easy to spot other people's mistakes but so much harder to see our own. I hope that by sharing these that we (embarrassingly) recognise that we do them too. Then, easy to fix!

The greatest advantage a Kitchen Table Business has over it's bigger brethren is that it can truly provide a happy and personalised service. But, groan, we sometimes get it so wrong!

Take this example:

We recently moved house and asked a small local business for a quote. When we didn't receive the quote we called up the owner. After a quick game of telephone tag he emailed us with "I hope you received my returned call whilst I was on leave". I'm not sure if he meant to sound grumpy but it certainly came across that way.

I do sympathise - it's tough to get away from your business when you are on holiday. But I tend to think you rather shoot yourself in the foot when you grumble about it to potential customers.

All businesses have to really work their points of difference. Happy and personalised isn't as easy as it sounds, but with a little effort it's very doable.