Every businessman/woman in this world wants to become the top manager, many people concentrate much in good management practices and do nothing to eradicate the poor ones that they are already engaged in. A successful manager must understand that effective management demands that one learns new skills and at the same time dropping the ones which have proved to be harmful to the business.The first bad management practice is any strategy that has worked for similar business but does not seem to be working for yours. Please understand that the strategy that gave your competitor success last year may be his downfall today, so be careful while trying to copy from others. On the other hand, customer needs keeps on changing and therefore needs proper research before coming up with your way forward.Secondly, know how much to spend on marketing and how to market. Many businesses spend much in poor marketing strategies. It would be wrong to spend money advertising in the national television for a small business whereas you could spend less in a local radio which identifies more with your clients.Total quality management demands that all the services offered by your business should be of quality. Many people overemphasis the need to have quality products while they forget that other factors that contribute to the overall success of the business. Your employees must be well treated, have welcoming receptionists, and very clean restrooms. Some other people have resulted to producing very poor quality products in the name of reducing the prices for the products. Please understand that very customer values quality. It should be your policy that you will embark on quality regardless of the cost.