Small Business Failure Rate Vs Success Rate, Here is the Truth!!!

Yes I know, you are thinking about starting a small business and want to know if there is any chance of succeeding at it, worth your time, resources and effort.

Or maybe you are a small business owner for some time now, but things don’t seem moving in the right direction and you feel your dreams of success are turning into dark hopeless nightmares...

Yes!, been there, done that!

I will help you in succeeding, turning your business around! Because I know what it takes...

Talking about failure rate, here is what SBA & US Dept of Commerce research has concluded.

"Starting a new business is incredibly risky. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), over 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years, and of those that make it, another 50% fail in the next few years." [1][2]

If you are wondering about Businesses that offer services, according to another research only 47.6% of such businesses survives after period of five years [3].

Well honestly it clearly suggests that there is a high risk but then again, every cloud has a silver lining!

That is, around 75% small business owners in US are Millionaires. [4] that’s pretty hopeful, isn’t it ? (smiles)

Seems like the rest that survives of the remaining 50% (reference to fact [1][2] [3]) do convert in businesses worth millions. That means success rate isn’t bad either!

Failing at small business isn’t something peculiar to present times, it has always been the case, that’s why there are 9-5 jobs ;p because jobs are better than business in terms of security, risk etc.


And you thought jobs sucks! ;p 


Jokes apart!

What I mean is, there is a huge difference between “failing” “failed” “bankrupt”.

That means when you are “failing” you should never ever take it as “failed” or getting “bankrupt”.

So failing doesn’t mean you lose hope, you can turn around your business, all you need is to persevere, to work on it constantly, to not do the same things and expecting different results, rather to experiment different things and make some reasonable conclusions along the way.

And based on those conclusions taking some corrective measures and assessing the results and again taking some corrective measures, doing it over and over until you are satisfied with your results.

That is why business is tough (and rewarding when you succeed), a lot harder than doing a job! 


Because it is challenging, demands efforts plus a lot of sacrifice!

Now when it comes to overcoming failures and questions like “how to grow my small business ?” .


What you need is, to look at your business from different angles and see where things are causing the problem and then taking a step by step, thoughtful approach to each and every problem, making bit by bit, little by little improvements.

Wining battle by battle, to win the big war!


Fact: Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers talked about needing 10,000 hours (or 5 years) to be an expert in your profession regardless of that profession. Now think about getting successful in your small business... (smiles)!

So let me give you some useful suggestions on answering "the questions" “How to grow my business ?” “How to overcome failing business?” “How to turn around your failing business into a successful enterprise that will make you a Millionaire!”

Suggestions to Grow Your Small Business & Avoid "Failing Small Business" situation!

I have written extensively on small business, marketing and the problems that could cause business failure, so I will mention those articles, so in case you are facing similar situation (which is more likely), those articles would come in handy. 

Does Advertising Actually Work ? If so, How exactly ?!!!

Read the above article, If you think your business is failing due to poor marketing (esp. advertising through different channels, mediums) or you have doubts about marketing, if it really works, if you want to know how marketing works, how can you make your advertising efforts deliver, than this article worth your time.

Remember since there are millions of business world around, back in 2010 there were 125 million Small Medium Large businesses all over the world; in 132 economies [5]. Plus each year around over one million businesses start in US alone that excludes online or partial start-ups [6]. 

 

That means 116 each hour!

Why I am mentioning these facts? Well, to highlight that marketing could be prime reason for your failing small business, because there are just too many to make your brand stand out, the clutter, information overload is immense and due to that customers just don’t know anything about your brand thus not buying what you are offering.

Remember!, majority of businesses are "me too’s" or business with similar product/service just like their competitors, they don’t offer something entirely different yet they are making good money but you are not making good money because they are making good money ;p.

In other words if you want to make good money you need to make your BRAND stand out in the crowd, that is where marketing can help, that is where that article can come in handy!

If you doubt my position about majority of businesses being "me too’s" or similar to the rest of their competitors in terms of their products/services, here is a little fact.

Nearly 50 percent of new products introduced in the market are complete failures and more than 70 percent do not reach their sales goals. [7]

If that is the situation of “new products” imagine what would be the situation of “new services”. 


Hopefully now you understand why majority of businesses tends to be "me too's"

Five Reasons Why Small Businesses Needs Branding

Branding Strategy Learn When & How To Brand Effectively

Now if advertising seems alright but you have doubts about branding, you think its branding that is contributing to your business continuous failing, and if you want to do branding on your own to fix it, then these couple of articles are for you.

Starting Small Business: I want to Start a Business but I have Fear of unknown!

If your problem is having little to no know-how about running business, you don't find yourself quite capable when it comes to managing the overall affairs of your business, you have different fears like financial woes, you don’t know how to handle marketing aspect of your business effectively or you are worried about managing the human resource side or you think you don’t have the capacity in managing the overall financial side of your business.

And you think due to having deficiencies in one (or all) of these aspects of your business is resulting in a failing business, then you should read this article.

What is the Best Marketing Strategy for Newly Started Small Business ?

If you believe, "the failing" of your business is due to low customer awareness of the brand or less market visibility and that is due to low advertising budget because you can’t afford, because you have a small business and you think by fixing that would help in turning your business around then you should religiously follow the above article.

Conclusion!

The truth is, business failure rate is greater than business success rate but if you do the right things at the right time with right means for right the reasons you can turn your business around, making it worth millions.

Suggestions in this article covers almost all major aspects of your business, aspects that if are not handled in effective manner will result in failing business consequently complete failure or bankruptcy.

I will mentions these aspects in bullets just in case you skimmed over the article

• Covers how to attract customers via marketing (advertising)
• Covers how to manage all affairs of your business efficiently and effectively
• Covers how to do effective marketing with minimum budget
• Covers how to do branding on your own to stand out among the crowd
• Covers why avoiding branding could lead to business failure

This post covers the main articles on how to overcome business failures, there are more detailed articles on like how to launch a loyalty program, how to make effective print ads for your business, how to make customer love your brand, what skills you need as small business owner to succeed, how to achieve quality leads, how to get objective feedback from your customers, how to increase customers involvement in your brand/products/service, when to use freebies and why etc etc

Almost all angles of small business are covered on this website, that means you can be sure to find a fix for your problem, all you need is to dig in here.

In case you want to read some interesting facts about small business in US, read this article

21 Surprising Facts About Small Businesses in the US

Over to you guys!
 

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References

1.      www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/sbfaq.pdf

2.      U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics; U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, BED

3. http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/09/failure-rates-by-sector-the-real-numbers.html

4.      Thomas J. Stanley, The Millionaire Mind (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McNeel, 2001). Thomas J. Stanely and William D. Danko, The Millionaire Next Door (New York: Pocket Books, 1996).

5.      http://www.ifc.org/msmecountryindicators

6.      Small Business by the Numbers (Washington DC: Small Business Administration, 2004)

7.      Delre, S.A., Jager, W., Bijmolt, T.H.A. and Janssen, M.A. (2007), “Targeting and timing promotional activities: an agent-based model for the takeoff of new products”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 60 No. 8, pp. 826-835.