Want to Start a Business?
Before embarking on a new enterprise, be sure to do your research.
Start-Up Businesses
Eighty percent of new businesses will fail or cease to exist beyond five to seven years.
-- U.S. Small Business Administration
Reasons why businesses fail
The number one reason small businesses fail is because the business owner didn’t take time to conduct a feasibility analysis, market and business plan.
-- U.S. Small Business Administration
The top 10 reasons why small businesses fail are:
- Bad planning, no planning
- Inadequate capital and ignoring business and seasonal cycles
- Lack of focus, lack of commitment
- Lack of experience
- Poor records and useless financial reports
- Revenue problems – failure to identify a narrow customer base
- Inadequate marketing to the target customers
- Too much capital tied up in equipment and inventory
- Too rigid or too lax an organization. Failure to delegate or conversely, ignoring need for leadership and direction
- Location, location, location. Accessible to target market. Parking and expansion available?
- Failure to communicate with accountant, banker or mentors until failure is certain
- Starting out with no plan / no research
- Unrealistic expectations — want glamour without the grunt work
- Treating business as a hobby
- Women are uncomfortable talking about money
- Starting too big: Slow down and start small
- Women account for 55 percent of new startup businesses in the U.S.
- Since 1987, the number of women-owned firms in the U.S. has doubled, employment has increased four-fold and their revenues have risen five-fold.
- Women hold 13.6 percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. Only six percent of those businesses take in revenue of $1 million or more.
- One of the most important factors in the success of women-owned businesses is mentoring.
