Why Small Businesses Fail – Lowering The Rate Of Small Business Failure

Business Ownership: Highly Desired, But Not As Highly Pursued

© Copyright, Nick Bibby

Business ownership is the most dreamed-about career option in the United States. More than one-half of the adult population, 57%, would opt for self-employment according to one Gallup Poll. But of those 70 million-plus people, less than one percent (about 600,000) take the leap each year. Why? Because most lack the focus, planning skills, and personal insights needed to overcome fear and other obstacles.

For too long, prospective entrepreneurs have been without a critical ingredient; a logical system that can take them from wanting to be in business to actually being in business. Even more disturbing is that more than one-half of new ventures will not survive for even five years. It’s a tragedy that once aspiring entrepreneurs finally get into business, less than half will succeed. It’s tragic on two levels. First, small business failure results in personal and financial loss. And second, small business failure takes away from the overall economy.

The High Cost Of Small Business Failure

The high failure rate of small businesses represents devastation to millions of bank accounts and the families draining them. Failed businesses lessen job opportunities for others, reduce the tax base, fund fewer government works, and offer up smaller numbers of budding major companies. Low success rates for small businesses fuel a negative chain reaction throughout our economic system. Emerging entrepreneurs are national treasures but their high failure rate is not a priority for government, academia or any other associated entity.

Entrepreneurship Is A Lifestyle & Should Be Viewed As Such

Entrepreneurship is at the core of everything that’s economically successful in North America, as it is in all capitalist societies.  Entrepreneurs are the backbone of economies, yet the true nature of self-employment and the entrepreneur is not thoroughly understood. Entrepreneurship as a ‘lifestyle’ is not taught in our schools or promoted by small business authorities. Instead of focusing on the entrepreneur, the world of self-employment is centered on business plans, financing and marketing. The main reason why small businesses fail is that the entrepreneur, the person, is not considered the prime catalyst in the start-up formula. It’s true that many succeed through hard work, grit, and sometimes plain luck, but for most, what was once a beautiful dream becomes a living nightmare. Such is the lot for so many brave souls who start alone and end alone. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Business Plans Are Not The Answer To Lowering The Rate Of Small Businesses Failure

Government, schools, and professional advisers insist that business begins with business planning. But the most successful business owners, consciously or otherwise, first understand themselves as entrepreneurs. They also know, consciously or otherwise, what type of venture suits them, and how they fit inside of that venture. Entrepreneurship must first be about the entrepreneur. Personal planning should always precede business planning, but generally, it does not. If one is to take this high-risk journey, one must first consider self before all other factors. To study and interact with both failed and successful entrepreneurs is to understand why small businesses fail and why they succeed. Business plans change. The nature of the individual entrepreneur does not.

The first step in business ownership should be gathering up quality weapons to do battle. But traditional weapons such as capital (sometimes too much) and business plans should not be deployed first. Capital and business plans alone are not formidable enough to overcome the high rate of small business failure. Leaning on elements beyond the person, the entrepreneur, is central to why small businesses fail.

The Key To Successful Entrepreneurship Is The Entrepreneur

Lowering the rate of small business failure means increasing awareness as to how self-employment is approached. The difficulty lies not in acknowledging the problem, but in not having a means of discovering one’s entrepreneurial self and potential fit before start-up. The most successful entrepreneurs are gifted with the ability to know how they might fit into business ownership. For others, the connection is not self-evident.

The missing weapon is a personal plan based on greater knowledge of oneself and the truth about where we belong, if at all, in the world of self-employment. If there’s one single factor for why small businesses fail, it’s a lack of self-understanding that leads to poor choices. It’s not a business that makes a success of the entrepreneur. It’s the entrepreneur, who, if well prepared, makes a success of the business. Simply put, to increase the chances for successful self-employment, the self-employed must know their entrepreneurial self and build a venture around those findings. Small businesses fail when a person falsely believes they are entrepreneurial material and/or they do not choose a venture that, in some way, reflects themselves, their personality and their needs.

A Process For Entrepreneurial Insight

The Focus Program for Emerging Entrepreneurs is the first and only insight system for developing a clear image of who a person might be as an entrepreneur and how they might fit into the world of self-employment. Until now, there has not been a process for examining the single most important component of entrepreneurship, namely THE ENTREPRENEUR. The Focus Program for Emerging Entrepreneurs guides users through the creation of a Personal Entrepreneurial Portrait℠, a powerful word picture that aids in defining critical success factors. Major outcomes associated with developing an entrepreneurial portrait are the ability to:

• Determine one’s entrepreneurial type
• Relate business due diligence to personal insight
• Assess one’s aptitudes relative to entrepreneurship
• Decide if self-employment is a wise personal choice
• Choose the kind of business that will best fit one’s style
• Learn how to conduct due diligence if buying a franchise

The Focus Program For Emerging Entrepreneurs – A Virtual Exploration Into Self-Employment

No other program, process, or system has ever zeroed in on creating a detailed word picture of the entrepreneur prior to launching. Upon completion of the program, individuals will know themselves and, in particular, their entrepreneurial selves far better than before. The process calls for patience, care, honesty, time and reflection. This is a journey into self-discovery that, if taken seriously, will serve users well for the rest of their lives. And, if one chooses not to pursue self-employment, all the better. After all, if the process results in knowing that business ownership is a poor choice, that is one more heartbreak avoided and one more bank account saved.

Entrepreneur, Know Thyself is not a witty statement. It’s the truth about successful self-employment. Many small businesses would not have failed had the entrepreneur first taken an honest self-assessment prior to leaping into self-employment.

The Focus Program for Emerging Entrepreneurs can yield a logical vision of a person’s entrepreneurial type on a unique continuum. It will also help clarify the user’s goals, God-given gifts, talents and aptitudes regarding a new venture. The net result is taking authority over multiple options by seeing more clearly the path that is right for the individual, including the path that might read: ‘Entrepreneurship is not for ME.’ The intended goal is quite simple: Replace Entrepreneurial Chance With Choice.

A New Perspective On The Entrepreneur:Business Relationship

To summarize, successful entrepreneurship requires the ability to simultaneously make quality judgments about both personal and business issues. Above all else, business ownership is a human endeavor that embodies the personality, goals and abilities of the owner. Yet, conventional wisdom disregards the more human side of self-employment. It focuses almost exclusively on business processes such as writing a business plan, raising capital and marketing. Each of these is important, but they pale in comparison to the importance of the person taking the risk. The prime reason why small businesses fail is that people do not first understand how, if and why self-employment might be a wise choice.

Entrepreneurship is about building and maintaining a strong, healthy, personal relationship with one’s venture. Tradition ignores this fact because it’s not popular, not understood, and may even be too personal to have a place in business. Wrong thinking has cost too many people too much and is exactly the problem with the conventional approach to entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurship flows from understanding one’s self as well as one’s business ideas.

Successful Entrepreneurs Are In Businesses That Reflect Who They Are

Those who have achieved success in business have understood, either consciously or unconsciously, how they, as a person, fit into their venture. Starting a business without evaluating oneself or the reasons for starting it is no different than beginning a journey without directions. The result is holding the reins tight and hoping for the best. That practice leans toward failure, both in business and in life.

Often, entrepreneurs begin assessing themselves after launching the venture when prior poor choices are either very difficult or impossible to change. The prime reason why small businesses fail is a series of poor personal choices. Important decisions left to chance usually result in disappointment, upset and/or failure. On the other hand, entrepreneurs who clearly state personal and business goals that are congruent with who they are tend to find different outcomes. As with life choices in general, great entrepreneurial experiences begin with a clear and accurate knowledge of what will complement our God-given skills and logical needs.

Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow

The old adage “Do what you love and the money will follow” is powerful and correct advice. Successful entrepreneurship truly begins on the inside, and ultimately manifests itself as an appropriate personal expression on the outside. Grave mistakes occur when poor resources are given undue influence. Advice from those who have never had a successful start-up are not essential guides. Decisions based on greater personal insight invariably lead to better and more fulfilling results because they are choices based on self knowledge; knowledge of what is best for us.

The Focus Program for Emerging Entrepreneurs is the only insight process that helps prospective business owners create a virtual picture, a ‘personal entrepreneurial portrait’℠, of themselves in business before taking a plunge that is costly in so many ways.