Syndicate Your Content For Search Engine Domination Top Ten Reasons You Suck At Running a Small Business
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Every day, an alarming number of small businesses fail. In fact, research suggests that as many as half of all small businesses close their doors within just two years of opening. While some of these failures have to do with economic reasons or simple fate, many businesses fail because the business owner made a mistake, or a series of mistakes.
Here are the top ten reasons small business owners fail on and off line:
1. A lack of planning. Many business owners don’t plan much past opening their doors. To be successful in small business, you have to be able to look at the long term.
2. A lack of business skills. Just because you’re good at whatever business it is you’re in doesn’t mean you’re good at business. Tasks as basic as bookkeeping are integral to the success of a business, and have to be done right if you’re going to last.
3. Poor marketing. Creating a great blog, product or providing an amazing service isn’t enough. You have to tell people about your business, and you have to tell them WHY they need you.
4. Poor location. Many offline small businesses, especially service-based businesses, need an optimum location in order to succeed but online businesses need to be in good nieghbourhoods as well. Make sure you are were the customer are looking and can easily find you.
5. Inattention. A successful small business owner has a handle on all of her or his business processes. They know what’s going on from an accounting perspective, and understands the issues. While she or he doesn’t have to directly control everything, they are aware of what’s going on.
6. Insufficient funding. Small businesses take time to turn a profit. You can’t open your doors or start on a new blog and expect to be turning a profit in a matter of days. Yes there are many online businesses that seem to suddenly appear and make it big time but 99% of these are based on a foundation that was funded long before what you see has come to life. Successful small businesses have adequate funding, whether it’s savings, simply good budgeting or even small business loans or venture capital.
7. Staffing issues. For a small business to grow, you eventually have to hire others to do some of your work. Knowing how many people to hire, how much to pay them and where to find them is critical to your success.
8. Supplier and affiliate issues. While you can’t control the actual flow of supplies from your supplier, you can make the extra effort to choose reliable suppliers or affiliate products, and to recognize when a supplier or affiliate product might be taking a downturn.
9. Growing too fast. Just because you have twice as many orders and or revenue this month doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have twice as much the following month. Slow, steady growth is best, even if it means occasionally passing by a large opportunity.
10. Poor customer retention. To succeed as a small business, you need to have repeat buyers. If you can’t maintain a growing group of regular customers, your business is doomed to failure. Capture leads, provide them value and keep them around for the long term.
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Probably because your plain idiotic like me.
hmmm it could be.. lol
Thanks for the post. There’s a lot more to blogging or affiliate marketing than just publishing web sites and posts, then earning commissions. Even for the part time internet marketer, proper planning and business fundamentals still apply.
Jons last blog post..Three Reasons Why I’m An Affiliate Marketer
great write-up on some of the common mistakes made by new business owners. I think a number of people that start their own independent online business fail to plan properly as they get wrapped up in the notion that it’s a one-person show and they’re moving to their own beat. It’s incredible what a little planning will do.
That, my friend, is a great post. Most of the time people don’t fall victim to a single one of those pitfall but multiple. The combination is ultimately what puts the final nail in the coffin.
BigPappas last blog post..The Advertising of Yesterday Part XVII
Bad partnerships have to be right up there as well. Nothing shoots a business to hell faster than an ugly partner divorce.
Rons last blog post..Debt and the Law of Reciprocation
Great post. Looks like I don’t fall in any of those 10, so I’m safe.
Sly from SlyVisions dot Coms last blog post..Quick Links - September 4, 2008
I’d say ALL businesses have problems in each of these areas. It would be really fun for us to get a group together and each give out a tip on how to minimize those problems in our businesses. What do you think?
Reed Florens last blog post..Meet me in Minneapolis?
failing to plan is planning to fail…i think the single most important factor for any project or business. Food for thought. Thanks Cow
Babble Pulses last blog post..Damn WordPress White Spaces
As a small business owner who had just gone past the 2 years mark (and still keeping our heads above water
) I agree with this post as we had been quite mindful of the pitfalls especially point 9. You need to grow organically and it takes time to find and retain the right staff as well - point 7. Thanks.
FH2os last blog post..Kuching Airport to City & More for RM4 Only! FlexiDailyPass
I like number 10 about having repeat buyers. If you can accomplish this, then you are on the right track. If you are getting no traffic but you do have some repeat buyers, then obviously you have something worthy. So once you start to receive more traffic you have a better odds of seeing repeat customers.
Great info. I think patience and stcking with an idea for long enough is key, especially online. There are so many ‘next big things’ that it is easy to flit from one thing to the next without seeing an idea through which could ahve been very successfull.
Steve
Steves last blog post..Craftshapes competition 4 Winner….
yes right mr.chow
every netpreneur has to recognize this. somesay it’s just to be easy. but it’s not easy as it well.need for struggling, hardwork and faith.
sincerely yours
ario.
Awesome post Mr Cow. This has actually inspired me to write a certain post on my blog (I will be sure to link back to you in this post giving you credit for the idea). This is a great post and I see you have gotten a few diggs. No wonder. Its a pretty cool article.
Keep up the good work
I particularly like number 10, poor customer retention. If you can’t keep repeat customers and sales coming in, the lifeline and core of your business is doomed to fail. Having a product or service that your customers need on a daily, weekly, or monthly business will keep money coming in while you can outsource a lot of the other processes and systems which I guess would be number 7. I have found these 2 to be most valuable to in my business.
John,
I came across your blog while doing a search and the title really caught my eye. Very catchy!
In some way or another…all small business owners suck at running a small business. In actuality they either don’t want to admit it to themselves or others, or they don’t even know they suck!
In my experience in the internet marketing arena “insufficient funds” and “lack of staffing” tend to go hand in hand. Most marketers try to do it all themselves because they don’t have the funds.
Most of the recent big launches are all about productivity, freeing ourselves from constraints, and outsourcing and staffing. Everyone needs more time to get more funds to hire more staffing to make more money.
What a cycle!
Great post,
Jane
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