5 Ways To Guarantee Your New Business Will Fail
Here are five things you can do get off to a bad start, waste your time and money, and frustrate yourself in your quest for financial and career independence.
1. Forget About Niching Down
Whether you are starting an online venture or a real world, brick-and-mortar business, it is very important to find your niche. All of my successful businesses have been targeted to a very specific sector of a bigger market. I’ll give you an example.
One of my earliest post-college startups, was a swimming pool service and repair business. This also happened to be my first partnership. A friend of mine discovered a device that used copper and silver ions to purify pool water, instead of chlorine. He started a business installing these devices, and offering service contracts to the homes that purchased one. He did not have a strong business background, so he found himself struggling. This was way before the internet got started (yes, I’m old!), so he did not have fantastic resources like StartupDaddy.com that he could easily go to for advice. We started talking about it, and I thought he was really on to a great idea, so I partnered up with him.
I was living in Miami at the time, and this was just as South Beach was starting to be a place beyond a community of retirees living on their social security checks (I told you, OLD!). Since this was a luxury product, I started targeting luxury communities. The expensive Miami Beach mansions in exclusive gated communities would be our target market. I increased what he was charging for the device itself, doubled what he was charging for a monthly service contract, and quadrupled the business in the first year. We were able to differentiate ourselves by targeting a specific niche in the market. This is when I discovered it cost me the same time and money to get a pool clean for a wealthy person who could afford, and wanted, other premium products and services, as it did for a person who could not afford, and did not want, premium products and services. A lesson I keep in mind to this day.
2. Listen To Everyone’s Advice
When you announce to your world that you are starting a business, you will be surprised at the advice you will receive. Some from people who have never run a business themselves! While this advice usually lacks in quality, it will surely not lack in quantity. You will hear, “Wow, pretty risky! Better have a backup plan.” Like working for a company for 20 plus years, and getting laid off at 50, is not risky. You can also get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of GOOD books, courses, and online content, devoted to starting a business. Do yourself a favor. Find a few trusted advisers, read as much as you can, and shut the rest out.
3. Remember, You Already Know Everything You Need To Know About Your Business
While it is very important to filter the information and advice about your business, it is also very important to seek it out. You may have been doing what you do for your business for 25 years, but believe me, there is always something you can learn to make more money doing it. All of the successful entrepreneurs I know continually read journals and books about their business, and business in general. You are going to need to pay for some of this education, too. Go to seminars (on-line AND OFF-LINE). Sure, some are truly a waste of your time and just an excuse for the presenter to sell his wares in the back of the room. Do some research though. Get referrals or read some of the author’s material first, to make sure you like what they have to say, and how they say it. Seminars can be a great way to get information and make contacts, that will make you money.
4. Stay Secluded and Go It Alone
It is easy when you are starting a business, especially a home based business, to get caught up in the day to day activity of getting things done. When you couple that with starting a family, you can quickly and easily find yourself going days or weeks, without seeing another adult human being that you are not related to. Do not fall into this trap. It can get very lonely, and it is not healthy for you, or your relationship with your family. Get into a networking or mastermind group. It will help your business, and your psyche.
5. Get Bogged Down In the Planning and Minutia, and Never Get Started
Let’s face it. Starting a business is scary. It’s exciting, but no matter how many times you do it, there is a little voice reminding you that there is the possibility of failure, and that is scary. Some people say that is a poison thought. You should not allow yourself to even think about failure. Bull!! The possibility of failure is real. To me, shutting out reality is just plain dumb. The key is to be motivated by this possibility. Be careful. When there is a scary, big picture thing out there, we have a tendency to bog ourselves down with minutia. We get caught up performing tasks, instead of accomplishing goals.
Don’t get sidelined by the siren song of inefficiency and delay. This will happen to you. Count on it. Be aware when this is happening though, and you can stop it. Get started today. Go launch your website. Call the printer and get your business cards. Sit down, and niche down your business idea. Whatever the next step is for you, take it. Today. Now. Go.