Of all the thousands of mistakes that I've seen small business owners make the following are the most frustrating. These are my top-ten most used, most effective, fastest ways to put your small business into the toilet. If your company employs between one and twenty people, and you are interested in completely fouling it up, in wreaking havoc on its very existence, then by all means implement each of the ideas you are about to read.

10. Don't clarify the value you give to your customers. Be as vague as you can be about what your service or product can do for people. Clarifying your unique value can be a difficult task and work is supposed to be fun.

9. Welcome anyone who wants to work with you onto your team. After all, it's hard to say no to people who show an interest in you and your company. Do not create hiring criteria, or draft tough interview questions. Don't waste time on those silly background checks. Or better yet, hire only friends and spend hours yakking with them about personal issues (yours or theirs). Do not address the distinctions between friendships and working relationships with employees that are close with you. Maintain very fuzzy personal boundaries so no one is sure if you are a boss or a buddy.

8. Believe that your primary responsibility is the creation of the product or the delivery of the service that your business provides. Refuse to admit that there are other critical parts of your business that need to be working well to be successful. Make sure you don't pay attention to: marketing, sales, administration, finances, future planning, or R&D.

(I have news for you if you want to focus only on production of goods or providing a service then you should be working for someone else!)

7. Do not set goals! Do not develop time lines! Refuse to create a budget! Above all do not set clear objectives for the next week, month, or year. This might inspire some directed effort and we can't have any of that!

6. Do not manage your time well. Keep all the tasks you have to accomplish bottled up in your head rather than organizing them on paper. Spend time on meaningless tasks that are easy to perform. Avoid doing the tough projects that produce big results. Never prioritize tasks based on your long-range goals or objectives. Do not write up and prioritize daily "to do" lists.

5. Use a business model that may or may not work. Setup a structure for your business based on some other unrelated business that you are familiar with. Don't run any financial projections based on reasonable assumptions to see if the model is financially viable.

4. Refuse to market your product or service. Do not create a marketing plan or articulate a marketing strategy. Do not brainstorm or create a description of the unique benefits customers get when they work with you. Do not focus on sales. When addressing potential customers talk about the features of your product or service rather then the benefits it produces. Feel rejected if potential customers don't return the first few phone calls, do not call them back seven or more times, and refuse to be tenacious! Let rejection get you down.

3. Don't ever talk to friends, family members, or people that you meet about the services or products you offer. That would be rude behavior and you know they don't care about how you can help them anyway.

2. Give poor customer service because it takes too much time and effort to meet their needs. Don't ever let yourself feel good about going the extra mile for a client. Refuse to listen to feedback from customers or adjust quickly to meet their specific requests.

1. Live by Ego alone. Never ask for help! Stay away from anyone who will give you honest feedback. Don't find a good business coach or mentor. Refuse to get sales or leadership training. Refuse to read books. Do not attend lectures or seminars, and above all else, never, ever, believe that anyone else knows more than you do!

To ground your business into bits and pieces, to really screw things up, to drive customers away, feel free to follow these top-ten tips. If you'd like your business to flourish, your profits to soar, and your clients to sing your praises, then do the exact opposite of each of the ten suggestions made above.