Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail?
"I am going to be an Entrepreneur" is the happy thought that is going through most people's mind. The compelling reason may differ such as financial freedom and passion amongst other things. In the same way there are many reasons for a business, especially a startup, to tank. I would like to list few of the practical difficulties or reason why budding or even an established entrepreneur fail.
1. One man army
Trying to do everything on their own. One man can be a founder but trying to do everything on his own not only hampers his business progress but also his priceless personal life. Try to share the work with your co-founder, employee, consultant or an unknown expert by searching and finding them in your locality or nearby area. Sharing the work right from the start helps a lot.
2. Part Time Business
Normally, in a start-up, and even in few companies which have achieved break-even will have the business owners working part time. May be that is a safe way of doing a business but the risk of failure will be the price it demands. The part-time work of the owner will show a negative image of the company. The employees might start to drift to competitors’ company since they are not seeing the potential and the trust that an owner should have in his own venture. At least one or a trustworthy representative of the owner should be working full-time thinking about the business, tracking the employee's work and creating a synergy across the organization.
3. No Business Plan
A business plan is something that always reminds you of the key things your business should have. Few of them are --why you started your business, where you wanted to be, your revenue plan, you goals, etc. The practical difficulties and the ground reality will always drag any business to an unplanned, unpleasant and unexpected situations. A successful entrepreneur should stay rooted; strong on the business objective (but can be flexible in the route to objective). Whenever you have doubt and feel like you are drifting, a good business ideas will be the right place to refer to bring an entrepreneur back to the right and planned track. No business plan or the lack of clarity in the business plan will always lead to failure.
4. Not planning the revenue model
There can be thousands of reasons for starting a business, but any business will strongly depend on one the important factor--"money". Whatever you want to do for your business, from planning to get a service or a product to support your business, to advertising your business, paying employees, to creating your company portal, branding etc., money is a key factor. Any kind of business will demand Initial investment (That may vary depends on the business and the scale one wishes to start). When months and years starts rolling, a business should start generating revenue, otherwise it is a trap. Most of the entrepreneurs will be confident on their business concept/model and in fact that will be a true winning concept.
5. Expecting someone will help
Most of the startup has been started having few people in mind that they, in some way or the other, will help in the growth of their company (If you are an entrepreneur reading this, just rewind and see--you too had it). They might be your friends, relative, colleague etc. But the bitter truth is, most of the time the people in your contact will be busy in their lives or have different opinion of your business. It doesn't mean you have to work alone, but have fewer expectations from your contacts. The only person who can do magic in a business is the founder and obviously with the support from your employees, contacts etc.
6. Lack of networking skills
This is the most important skill a business will demand from an entrepreneur. Without the right networking, any entrepreneur is like a needless watch. Starting the business, creating customer base--whatever activity you think, it demands networking. Lack of networking skills will leave the entrepreneur in isolation and will be a barrier between the entrepreneur and his success
7. Entrepreneur’s Ego
Entrepreneur will take their business very close to their heart which in many occasions will lead them not listening to other's valuable suggestion. This doesn't mean always accept what others say about your business, but be open minded to positive criticism. Listen to all the criticism and inputs from others, analyses whether they are genuine or not.
8. Superior or inferior thought
Thinking our self to be superior or inferior to others is a basic and fundamental problem; especially in a business scenario, that thought will divert the entrepreneur by making him compare himself with other businesses rather than concentrating on his own business analysis and improvements . Although benchmarking your business with the industry standard or with a competitor is absolutely fine, comparing yourself or your business with them either to be proud or feeling less competitive will be a problem.
9. Fail to recognize colleagues and Employees
Few entrepreneurs will be very good in customer management, they will do everything right when comes to customer. In a business, the two important people we need to take care are our customer and our employees/colleagues. To me, the employees of our organization are primary as they are the one who always work to make the customer smile. If an entrepreneur fails to recognize his employees’ talent and their contribution to the organization, the organization is not in the right track of growth; it might even look like the business is winning—but not in the long term.
10. No clue on the right doors to be knocked
Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we should know the right doors to be knocked to be successful. Right from choosing an auditor, customers, vendors, etc., an entrepreneur should be on top of knowing who will be best suited for a particular task. It might be that during start up, it will be challenging to identify the right doors, but an entrepreneur should quickly master in identifying the right people. This will help them in climbing the business ladder of success.
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