According to a study that is reported by the New York Times between 10% to 12% of new businesses close within the first year they are created and there is only a 50% chance that they will continue to exist after 5 years.
With this, it is not that I want to discourage you from starting a new business, on the contrary, the idea is to prevent it so that you can be successful, since I am convinced that having our own business is the best.
Perhaps the problem with this high failure rate is due to how easy it is now to have our own business as the New York Times article says.
And that is absolutely true given that today it only takes a few dollars and we will already have our website and some business cards and presto we already have a consulting business.
But if you really want to be successful with a small or medium business where you are perhaps the only promoter of it, I recommend that you keep these tips in mind:
1. Education and Permanent Training in Business . Never overestimate what you know, even if you think you know everything, there will always be new things to learn. If you don’t have money now there are many free resources where you can get training.
2. Plan your business idea. Making a careful business plan can help you anticipate the problems that may happen and the various scenarios that are going to happen to you.
I recommend you take into account 4 possible scenarios for your projections:
– a pessimist
– A conservative
– an optimistic one
– One where everything goes to hell and you plan your exit strategy from the business.
3. Take action. It is useless to plan your business idea if you do not take action and start executing your plan. Do not stay in the daydream of your fantasies, make things happen and take the success that you deserve and that is there at your fingertips.
4. Take care of your cash, your cash . Cash is very, very important in a business idea that is just starting because generally you will not see profits until after several months. This is technically called the cash flow which should be closely followed by any business.
