The Stupid Business: Fifteen Guaranteed Signs that Your Business Will Fail
The Stupid Business: Fifteen Guaranteed Signs that Your Business Will Fail
Following are fifteen signs that you might have a stupid business:
1. Marketing is not a priority. It is a sad but true fact that the most successful businesses do not always provide the best products or services. Often, less deserving businesses do better because they make marketing a top priority. If your business isn’t using at least seven different channels to get visible, then it is at risk.
2. You do not have a detailed cash flow budget and projections. Cash flow and profits are not the same thing, and the number one reason businesses fail – even those with strong potential – is because they run out of cash. It is essential to know how much cash you have, and how much you will need in the near and mid-term. Use a variety of different scenarios to assure enough cash in case of unanticipated problems or delays.
3. You aren’t developing sources of leverage. Businesses that last learn to operate without depending on the founders or owners. Smart businesses have standards, systems, and documented processes in place to provide leverage for owners and grow without depending on one or more key people.
4. You don’t have an “edge” in your marketplace. If you are a me-too business offering the same service, pricing, and products as everyone else, you won’t last long. You need some sort of edge that matters to your prospects and customers and keeps them coming back. Your advantage can include proprietary technology, product leadership, operational excellence, unique distribution channels, protected sources of labor or supplies, and more.
5. You provide lousy customer service. No business owner ever admits to providing lousy customer service, and yet too many businesses do just that. It is crucial to understand your customer’s expectations, know the “magic moments” when you can make or break the customer’s experience, measure results, train employees to delight customers, and put in place standards and processes to assure consistent service.
6. Your business lacks focus. Entrepreneurs love to start new things up, and this can be deadly for cash flow and customer perceptions. Know what you do well, and for whom, and be the best in that niche. Don’t have visions of grandeur. Don’t try to own the whole world. It is expensive to launch new products and enter new markets. For instance, a local boxing gym decided to get into kickboxing and mixed martial arts. They quickly lost their loyal base of boxing clients, without attracting enough new martial arts clients. Fortunately, the owner saw his mistake and regained his focus on boxing.
7. You don’t have the right people to succeed. Businesses need talent – “the right people in the right seats on the bus” as Jim Collins writes. If you don’t have systems in place to recruit, train, reward, and retain top talent, your business won’t last as long as it otherwise could.
8. You spend too much money on things that are unrelated to getting more customers and meeting their needs. Larry Ellison of Oracle used to say, “If you aren’t making it or selling it, what are you doing here?” Prune your business expenses to focus on those activities that add direct value to the customer. For instance, I worked with one business that had huge legal expenses related to contracts, trademarks, and patents. The business ran out of cash because of these costs. It would have been smarter to first test its products, use do-it-yourself legal services, and then spend money protecting its assets after proving market demand.
9. You don’t set a clear direction that every employee understands and embraces. Many business owners keep their strategy and goals in their head, without communicating clearly to employees. It is much more powerful to have a dialogue with employees about where you want to take the company, what it can do best, how it can make more money, and resources required to get it there.
10. Your fixed costs are too high. Constantly find ways to reduce fixed costs. Thanks to technology and the increased acceptance of contract labor, you can have a lean, mean, virtual organization and avoid huge overhead.
11. Your attitude is wrong. One of the biggest reasons businesses don’t last beyond the life of the original owner is because the owner cared more about ego, status, and maintaining control than on having a successful business. Strong business leaders surrender control to top talent, and place greater emphasis on bottom-line results than on their status or ego.
12. You don’t live by metrics. The best businesses pick a few key things to measure and constantly improve on those metrics. Examples include: number of leads, conversion rate, dollars spent per transaction, repeat business, and gross profit margin.
13. Your business fails the five forces test. Michael Porter devised the five forces model of competitive advantage. If you don't have lots of control over your vendors or customers, face significant government regulation, work in a highly fragmented industry with lots of competition, and anyone can easily enter your industry, then your business could be set for lots of trouble.
14. Lots of cash goes in before cash comes in. If your revenue cycle requires large outflows to generate cash inflows, then you are perpetually at risk of losses. For instance, imagine an event promotion company that needs to put down huge deposits in the hopes that lots of people will come to the event; that is a highly risky business and it is no wonder that so many promotion companies come and go.
15. You can't easily predict future revenues. The best businesses know that $X in marketing will generate $Y in sales, every time. The worst businesses face highly predictable revenue streams. To bring back the example of the promotions company, it is extremely difficult to know on a given date whether lots of people will come to an event or not, especially events with large ticket sales the day of a show. Poor weather, competing events, local traffic jams, and shocking news can all ruin an event.
If your business meets even a few of the above criteria, I wish you the best of luck. You are going to need it.
The Stupid Business Fifteen Guaranteed Signs that Your Business Will Fail - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Neitlich's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
There are smart businesses and stupid businesses. Smart businesses grow profitably, generate cash flow, increase in value over time, and operate without significant input from the founders. Stupid businesses aren’t set up to do any of these things, and are destined to eventually fail.
Following are fifteen signs that you might have a stupid business:
1. Marketing is not a priority. It is a sad but true fact that the most successful businesses do not always provide the best products or services. Often, less deserving businesses do better because they make marketing a top priority. If your business isn’t using at least seven different channels to get visible, then it is at risk.
2. You do not have a detailed cash flow budget and projections. Cash flow and profits are not the same thing, and the number one reason businesses fail – even those with strong potential – is because they run out of cash. It is essential to know how much cash you have, and how much you will need in the near and mid-term. Use a variety of different scenarios to assure enough cash in case of unanticipated problems or delays.
3. You aren’t developing sources of leverage. Businesses that last learn to operate without depending on the founders or owners. Smart businesses have standards, systems, and documented processes in place to provide leverage for owners and grow without depending on one or more key people.
4. You don’t have an “edge” in your marketplace. If you are a me-too business offering the same service, pricing, and products as everyone else, you won’t last long. You need some sort of edge that matters to your prospects and customers and keeps them coming back. Your advantage can include proprietary technology, product leadership, operational excellence, unique distribution channels, protected sources of labor or supplies, and more.
5. You provide lousy customer service. No business owner ever admits to providing lousy customer service, and yet too many businesses do just that. It is crucial to understand your customer’s expectations, know the “magic moments” when you can make or break the customer’s experience, measure results, train employees to delight customers, and put in place standards and processes to assure consistent service.
6. Your business lacks focus. Entrepreneurs love to start new things up, and this can be deadly for cash flow and customer perceptions. Know what you do well, and for whom, and be the best in that niche. Don’t have visions of grandeur. Don’t try to own the whole world. It is expensive to launch new products and enter new markets. For instance, a local boxing gym decided to get into kickboxing and mixed martial arts. They quickly lost their loyal base of boxing clients, without attracting enough new martial arts clients. Fortunately, the owner saw his mistake and regained his focus on boxing.
7. You don’t have the right people to succeed. Businesses need talent – “the right people in the right seats on the bus” as Jim Collins writes. If you don’t have systems in place to recruit, train, reward, and retain top talent, your business won’t last as long as it otherwise could.
8. You spend too much money on things that are unrelated to getting more customers and meeting their needs. Larry Ellison of Oracle used to say, “If you aren’t making it or selling it, what are you doing here?” Prune your business expenses to focus on those activities that add direct value to the customer. For instance, I worked with one business that had huge legal expenses related to contracts, trademarks, and patents. The business ran out of cash because of these costs. It would have been smarter to first test its products, use do-it-yourself legal services, and then spend money protecting its assets after proving market demand.
9. You don’t set a clear direction that every employee understands and embraces. Many business owners keep their strategy and goals in their head, without communicating clearly to employees. It is much more powerful to have a dialogue with employees about where you want to take the company, what it can do best, how it can make more money, and resources required to get it there.
10. Your fixed costs are too high. Constantly find ways to reduce fixed costs. Thanks to technology and the increased acceptance of contract labor, you can have a lean, mean, virtual organization and avoid huge overhead.
11. Your attitude is wrong. One of the biggest reasons businesses don’t last beyond the life of the original owner is because the owner cared more about ego, status, and maintaining control than on having a successful business. Strong business leaders surrender control to top talent, and place greater emphasis on bottom-line results than on their status or ego.
12. You don’t live by metrics. The best businesses pick a few key things to measure and constantly improve on those metrics. Examples include: number of leads, conversion rate, dollars spent per transaction, repeat business, and gross profit margin.
13. Your business fails the five forces test. Michael Porter devised the five forces model of competitive advantage. If you don't have lots of control over your vendors or customers, face significant government regulation, work in a highly fragmented industry with lots of competition, and anyone can easily enter your industry, then your business could be set for lots of trouble.
14. Lots of cash goes in before cash comes in. If your revenue cycle requires large outflows to generate cash inflows, then you are perpetually at risk of losses. For instance, imagine an event promotion company that needs to put down huge deposits in the hopes that lots of people will come to the event; that is a highly risky business and it is no wonder that so many promotion companies come and go.
15. You can't easily predict future revenues. The best businesses know that $X in marketing will generate $Y in sales, every time. The worst businesses face highly predictable revenue streams. To bring back the example of the promotions company, it is extremely difficult to know on a given date whether lots of people will come to an event or not, especially events with large ticket sales the day of a show. Poor weather, competing events, local traffic jams, and shocking news can all ruin an event.
If your business meets even a few of the above criteria, I wish you the best of luck. You are going to need it.
The Stupid Business Fifteen Guaranteed Signs that Your Business Will Fail - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Neitlich's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
|||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Andrew's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
|
||
|
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Meditation Guide SEO Made Simple Sample Chapter Opposing a Franchisor’s Motion Networking Is The Future The Idea Compass |
|
 | ||
 |
Guide To ERP Software
Business Management Software | |
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
