New business launches are soaring despite the tough economic backdrop, but how many will succeed? Around 20% of businesses fail during their first year – and 60% disappear within three years of launch. Those percentages may be even higher in future owing to high inflation and recessionary pressures.
Business advisers point to several common mistakes to avoid when starting a business. Avoid those errors from the start, you have a better chance of success.
Mistake number one is not to have a business plan. Failed businesses frequently haven’t spent time developing a clear roadmap for how they will achieve their objectives and what that might require in terms of resources.
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Your business plan should be detailed, with clear targets for sales, costs, marketing campaigns and so on. And it should set out what you’ll aim to do over the next 12 months at least, even if the plan has to be updated as market circumstances change.
A second common error is not to understand cash flow. Your business must have sales that exceed its costs to make a profit. But you also need to think about when money is coming in and out of the business. Costs tend to fall due upfront, and may be particularly high in your firm’s early days. Sales revenues, by contrast, may not come in until weeks or months later. Managing your business’s finances to address this mismatch is vital.
Thirdly, don’t skimp on your market research. It’s tempting to launch a business on the basis of merely an instinct that there will be demand for your product or service, but doing so will increase your chances of disappointment. Spend some time identifying the size of the customer base you are targeting, as well as its willingness to spend money on what you’re offering. Look at whether competitors are already meeting that demand. If so, do you have a unique selling point?
Problem four is that running a business requires a broad range of skills entrepreneurs may not have. Business founders often have vision; they’re creative and innovative. But businesses also need sound management, which requires a more mundane skill set.
Are you financially literate enough to manage the accounts? Are you organized enough to keep operations flowing smoothly? Do you have the confidence to manage a team? All these skills can be acquired through hiring, but it is crucial to identify shortfalls up front.
A fifth hallmark of business failures is that they have tried to grow too fast. It is exciting to launch a business and see the orders come flooding in, but you need the right structures in place to manage growth.
The danger is that the business gets overstretched, fails to deliver to customers it has made promises to – or delivers shoddy work. That can ruin your reputation before the company has really got going. Turn down orders from customers you’re not confident you can service instead of simply trying to wing it.
The final problem is lacking a back-up plan. Even in benign economic times, businesses are buffeted by unexpected surprises – anything from the failure of a key supplier to a fire in the warehouse. Unless you have contingency plans for coping with a major problem, and a financial cushion to fall back on, such a setback could sink your business, even it is otherwise successful.
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