They say that what you don’t know, can’t hurt you. But when it comes to running a business, this is patently not true. While it can feel like it’s the ideas and knowledge you have in your head that determines your success, the size of the gaps in your knowledge also have a significant impact too.

If there’s an important part of your business that you’re overlooking, then your company won’t be able to reach its full potential. But how do you know what you don’t know? That’s where we come in. Below, we take a look at some of the common aspects of running a business that entrepreneurs often overlook.

Your Target Audience

It’s easy to get lost in a good idea. You think up something, and then run with it until you can’t run anymore. From all angles, it feels like it’s an idea that is worth more than its weight in gold -- and you’re wondering how no-one has thought of it before.

It all sounds good...until you begin trading, and realise that there’s no demand for the product or service. Conducting your market research and figuring out who you’re targeting your company at is arguably as important as anything else during the early days of your business.

It’s important that you don’t get tied to one “buying persona” too early on, either. There may be a more suitable buying persona out there.

How to Hire Staff

You’re not going to build a large company all by yourself. Sooner or later, you’ll need to hire employees to help you with multiple tasks.

But it’s not enough just to bring a worker on board; you need to ensure that they’re the right employee for your business, that they know what they’re doing and fit in with your company branding. Developing a robust hiring process early on will help prevent the costly process of hiring another person because the first hire didn’t work out.

Specialised Subjects

Of course, you won’t have money in the budget to hire for every single task. But that doesn’t mean that you should be taking on the jobs yourself. Tasks that require specialised knowledge should be left to experienced parties, since they’ll know how to do the job properly, and more efficiently.

Things like your SEO, accounting, and legal matters are too important to be left to chance! For your SEO, look at working with a company like FATJOE, who can provide link building services and search engine friendly website content.

For your accounting and legal matters, you’ll want to work with trusted professionals -- referrals from other companies you work with can be a great way to find the right one for your business, providing they’re of similar size to yours.

Where You’re Going

Finally, think about where you’re going. You’ll primarily be focused on the here and now, but it’s always smart to have half an eye on the future. Even if your plan ends up changing, having a vague idea of the direction you’re heading in will keep you from going too far off-trail.