I read a really frightening
statistic the other day about just how many Businesses fail within the first 5
years of trading – according to leading experts 50% of start-ups will go bust
before they reach their fifth anniversary – that is a pretty scary statistic.
Although some
industries are better at survival than others, the grim fact is that if you are
starting a business today, you will only have a 50/50 chance of survival in the
next 5 years (I don’t want to be too gloomy, but if your business is
construction related, then your chances of survival in THE FIRST 2 YEARS will
drop to 20%!)
The next surprising
statistic is that of 50% that DO survive the first 5 year, only 10% of those
will survive the NEXT 5 years – meaning that, on average, 95% of all new
start-ups will fail within 10 years
And then five years
after that, you're down to just one
In other words, there's
a 99% chance of you going out of business in the first 15 years of operation
... Not the most
inspiring sentence you’ll ever read I know...
What saddens me most
about this statistic is that the vast majority of businesses die because of
suicide rather, than murder
It’s very rare that
you’ll see a business fail solely because of circumstances that occurred
outside the business owners control - more often than not, if a business fails
it’s because the business owner fails to spot an opportunity, fails to adapt, fails
to make the right decisions or fails to spot the warning signs before it’s too
late
So how do you make sure
you’re in that 1%?
It’s quite simple
really - you avoid what the other 99% are doing like the plague!
The conclusion that you
must reach is that if you want to thrive in a business environment, copying
what your competitors and other professionals in your field are doing is
suicidal - 99% of them will not be here in the next few years!
Think about how you’re
running your business at the moment - if you’re like the majority of the business
owners that I speak to, your business has the potential to be in the fast lane
to suicide!
They are doing the same
things that they were doing last year, they are chasing work that is
unprofitable or very low margin, they are doing work for clients that will not
pay and do not value the work that they do, and worst of all, they are selling
purely on price (and as we know, when you enter a competition that is based
purely on price, your customer is highly likely to go to one of your
competitors who is willing to provide similar services at a reduced rate)
If you want to get your
business off the dangerous path, or just want to learn more about how your
business could become and remain more profitable, then contact us today on 084
3289 3288 (for Blue Box Consultancy) or 08456 894 894 (for Blue Box Executive
Recruitment). You could also email us –
if the written word is your chosen medium – on hello@blueboxrecruitment.com or enquiries@blueboxconsultancy.com
If you just want to
know a little bit about who we are and what we do, then check out our website www.blueboxconsultancy.com and www.blueboxrecruitment.com
Until the next time,
take care, be bold and do good business
