Death by natural causes or suicide?

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