For every 100 businesses that were started up in 2011
- 75-80 of them will fail in their first year.
- Another 15 will fail over the next 2-5 years
- 4 will do well
- 1 will do really well.
In talking and observing businesses over the past 20 years,
I have discovered that it isn’t
- lack of business knowledge
- customer service
- administration
- product quality
- sales ability
- marketing
that causes a business to fail in the first 1-3 years.
What causes a business to fail?
The Failure To STICK with it
There is a story of two men that went to dig for gold, they started to dig. For days and days they dug. After a month of digging and not having any success they gave up. They returned to town and went to a local tavern. A man overheard them talking and offered to by their “worthless” deed, for a pittance. They sold it to him. The man went to the hole where they were digging, dug a few feet more and struck gold.
How many times in your business have you tried something for a few days, given up, tried something else for a few days, given up….
If this pattern is repeated enough we end up giving up with the statement
I have tried everything and nothing works!
The problem is that you did try Everything, but you didn’t stick with ONE Thing.
A client recently tried a new sales strategy. After a week he had gotten 3 new clients, which didn’t seem to excite him much. It didn’t really add to his bottom line.
Left up to his own thinking he would have stopped the strategy. I asked what his business would look like with 156 new clients. He responded that it would add significant growth to his business. I then suggested that he maintain this strategy for the next year (3clients x 52weeks) and he will see the benefit.
Time To Clobber Your Competition.
While your competition is jumping from idea to idea and giving up to soon, step up and get committed.
As a general rule it takes 3 years to get a business to become profitable.
Year one – Is usually a loss.
Year two – Is a loss to break even
Year three – Is profitable.
If you find a system that is just OK and stick with it you will soar past 75-80% of your competitors in the next year to 5 years.
If you constantly work on learning how to build your business, pick a strategy and stick with it you will find yourself in the top 5%.
Where to start.
If you haven’t yet, put together a 5 year goal for your business.
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Set a one year goal that will carry you in the direction of your 5 year goal.
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Set a 90 day game plan that you will commit to relentlessly.
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Start Today.
Commit to
