Posted by Paul Anderson
Is your Business failing because of these three reasons? (Correct them before you enter 2015)
Everyone starts a business expecting to grow. But only few manage to do it successfully. According to one of the blogs in NY Times, three out of ten new firms fail to survive for more than two years, while more than seven shut down within five years.
What is the cause behind such low survival rate? Forget survival, what makes it so difficult for the small businesses to come at par with their larger counterparts?
We give you three such reasons that act as a detriment in the growth of small and medium businesses. Take a look –
1. Money Money on the Mind
Believe it or not: a large percentage of professionals admit of starting their own business with the sole objective of making money faster.
As a result, they go in for a rude shock when they face the strong commitment that a business demands. The work, the responsibility and the risk factors all gets doubled and they start feeling the heat. Are you too going through a similar state of mind?
If yes, take a pause and get a reality check. Why are you running your business? Has the thinking been only to make money quickly and easily, just because you work for yourself now and not for someone else?
This kind of thinking or something similar to that will always take your business to the downhill. Understand in such cases, you really do not have a genuine passion towards your work. Without a passion for what you do and without the right mental temperament to put in devotion to your work, your business will keep getting hiccups as you move forward.
2. One Man Army
Case one: we met the money-minded business entrepreneur who is less enthusiastic towards his work and runs a business only because he sees it (i.e. working for himself) as a shortcut to earn more.
Case two: now let’s meet the overenthusiastic entrepreneur who’s strongly motivated and bubbling with energy all the time. Dynamic personality and raring to go, he thinks that he can manage the entire business on his own.
Do you identify yourself with this way of thinking?
Well, the sad truth is, you’re wrong.
Believing you can do everything yourself is good. Definitely shows a strong mark of confidence and optimistic attitude. But thinking that you can handle all parts of a business is not possible. Especially in today’s complex business landscape, you need expertise in every area that looks after the concerned department and reports to you regularly.
We suggest: get the combination of good human and technological resources. Recruit experienced professionals in different divisions and support them with relevant tools like (cloud based applications).
Hold regular meetings with them so that you have bird’s eye view over your entire business operations. You exactly know where your business is heading towards.
3. The Wrong People
A business can never move from ‘just surviving’ to a ‘flourishing’ state – as long as it does not have the right human resources in hand. When we say right human resources – we necessarily do not attribute only to academic qualifications but also to the overall work attitude.
For instance, support agents who lack the willingness to work hard will always exhibit poor customer-service. No matter how brilliant customer management software you bring in, your reps will never use it properly. Result: No benefit of the software.
So establish a strong hiring protocol. Ensure that the people you hire have the credentials to adjust with evolving roles as the company grows. Most importantly, they are flexible enough to embrace the new technologies and work in tandem with them.
We know: all this is easier said than done. But remember that although hiring good people will be an exhaustive process – it will be worth the time and effort taken.
