Don’t Be A Loser – Most Businesses Fail, But Yours Won’t!
We’ve all heard the stats on what percentage of businesses fail within a given time frame. Depending on whose research you use, and how the data was compiled, they usually go something like this: 50% – 80% of small businesses fail within the first 1-5 years. The exact percentage and the number of years differ, but the overwhelming reality is that starting a business and staying in business is tough under the best of circumstances.
Conversely when we look up reasons why businesses fail, there is much less gray area. I believe the list below represents the majority of reasons small businesses fail within whatever time frame you choose to look at.
My thought is this, and call me a simpleton if you will, that if we know the top reasons businesses fail wouldn’t it stand to reason that when we are contemplating starting a businesses we should take measures up front to ensure our business does not fall into one of these traps? If I were to tell you that 90% of people who walk over such-and-such bridge plummet to their death, would you walk over that bridge? NO – you would just find another route to get to your destination!
If, during your startup phase, you address each of the issues below, think them through, and create a plan on how your business will avoid these common pitfalls I believe that you are light years ahead of any competition who has yet to go through such an exercise.
So don’t be a loser…a little planning will go a long ways.
1. Lack of direction
2. Impatience
3. Greed
4. Taking action without thinking it through first
5. Poor cost control
6. Poor product quality
7. Bad or nonexistent budgeting
8. Inadequate financial records
9. Loss of momentum in the sales department
10. Failure to anticipate market trends
11. Lack of managerial ability or experience
12. Indecisiveness
13. Bad human relations
14. Diffusion of effort
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments section.
I think you hit the nail on the head with numbers 1, 4, 5, and 11. You could write a whole blog post just about them.
Talk to you soon,
T
A good list, but here is an extra one to add to the list:
15. Lack of proof-reading or spell-checking resulting in a non-existent word like “loosing”, which should be “losing”, causing you to be perceived as unprofessional. Perhaps there is something that is loose.
Hey Ian, thanks for pointing that out! Appreciate you taking the time to let me know there was an error.
Matt
Good one.
This is an interesting post. I as a business owner can tell you that I have had challenges with some of the things on this list. It’s true there are many challenges that comes with running a successful business. I would say having a quality product to me is right up there at the top of the list. If your product is sub par then why will people want to buy from you? Also if you have a quality product or service then you will get repeat business and referrals.
Yeah, lack of proofreading could mean something and check spelling too. When you write something about your business, you should be able to hire professional proofreader, because missing or additional syllable could mean bad issue and could gain bad impression.This is sort of additional tips.