when businesses fail

Buy Used Assets

The harsh fact is…
at least
20% of businesses
(I suspect the number is higher)
fail
within 2 years of opening.

That means
many of the assets
those founders bought new
to build their businesses
are less than 2 years old.

You can help those founders
recover some of the money
they invested
while
saving yourself money
by buying
needed gently used assets
from them
at a discount.

Your furniture, printers
shelving, supplies, etc
don’t have to be new.
They merely have to look
reasonably new.

Decreasing these costs
will stretch your start up funds
and that could make the difference
between your business
surviving or failing.

Buy assets used
whenever possible.

Family And Business

If I can avoid it,
I don’t go into business
with family members
(other than my spouse).

Most businesses fail.
That’s a brutal reality
for entrepreneurs.

There are ALWAYS
hard feelings
amongst founders,
amongst employees,
amongst other business partners
when businesses fail.

When family is involved,
some of those hard feelings
are directed to or come from
family members.

That destroys relationships.
Often permanently.

Plus family members
are usually not the best qualified candidates
for the roles they hold.

If you can avoid it,
don’t involve family members
in your business.

That rarely works out well.

Always A Little Bit Successful

One of my writing buddies
(owner of a small business)
told me her current book release
(product release)
was an absolute failure.

I asked her questions
about it
and uncovered
that it was only
an ‘absolute failure’
based on her expectations.

The book will break-even financially
within the release month
and, after that point,
it will earn a return.

This is often the case.

Our businesses aren’t
either
complete successes
or
complete failures.
It isn’t an
all or nothing situation.

A business, for example,
that survived
for a year
and then had to close
still SURVIVED for a year.

It paid salaries for a year.
It served the community
for a year.
Things were learned.
People gained experience.

Success and failure
is a range
and we will fall
somewhere between
the two extremes.

We will ALWAYS be
a little bit of a success.