According to the IRS, there are 18.1 million businesses in this country, but only 100,000 that employ 100 or more people.\u00a0 So of the 18.1 million businesses in this country, 18 million of them are small businesses.\u00a0 In addition, more than a million businesses are started here each year, but 800,000 of them will be gone within five years . . . the so-called \u201cred zone.\u201d\u00a0 Of the remaining 200,000 new businesses that do survive the \u201cred zone,\u201d 80% will never see their tenth anniversary.\u00a0 That means that of the one million plus businesses started here each year, less than 4% will last beyond 10 years.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Those failed entrepreneurs will tell you that their companies tanked because of a poor economy, a bad partnership, the high cost of energy, or unfair competition from third world countries.\u00a0 Not true.\u00a0 To learn what really doomed, and continues to doom, all those startups, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
Work on your business, not in it.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a trite and hackneyed phrase that\u2019s been used routinely in business books and business periodicals for many years. \u00a0Michael Gerber generally gets credit for popularizing the concept in his book, The E-Myth.\u00a0 Basically, the phrase is supposed to conjure up an image of a business owner who is so caught up in the daily grind of the business, that he or she has no time to step back and figure out how to make the business grow and prosper.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a business to be successful, it is critically important for the owner to have a clear vision for where the business can go and what it can become.\u00a0 Yet most would-be entrepreneurs start their business without any such vision.\u00a0 Their vision is to continue doing what they\u2019ve been doing, but do it on their own terms and take home a bigger paycheck.\u00a0 Essentially, rather than creating a business, they\u2019re creating a job for themselves.\u00a0 So they continue to do their job, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, and figure if they just hang in there and do their job well (as they always have), it\u2019ll all work out somehow and they will be successful.<\/p>\n Perhaps you know the story of Ray Kroc who built McDonald\u2019s into the restaurant behemoth it is today.\u00a0 He stumbled across the McDonald brothers who ran a couple of hamburger stands in California and who had developed an efficient process for churning out inexpensive hamburgers, French fries, and milk shakes.\u00a0 The brothers\u2019 vision was just to continue doing what they were doing, flipping hamburgers and keeping satisfied customers coming back for more.\u00a0 But Kroc had a different vision . . . a vision of franchising the McDonald brothers\u2019 concept into hundreds and thousands of restaurants all across the country.\u00a0 So he bought the franchise rights from the McDonald brothers and opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.<\/p>\n Ray Kroc had no interest in selling hamburgers . . . he probably never flipped one in his entire life.\u00a0 He wanted to sell franchises.\u00a0 So his customers were existing and prospective franchisees, not the burger-consuming public.\u00a0 He was selling a turnkey system for running a successful fast food business, and his customers were would-be entrepreneurs who wanted to run their own show, but who needed the sort of \u201chow to\u201d guidance that Kroc offered.<\/p>\n The McDonald brothers\u2019 vision was activity-based . . . just keep making and selling hamburgers, and keep doing that as long as possible.\u00a0 Ray Kroc\u2019s vision was to build a business, based on a franchise model that could be replicated again and again, anywhere in the country.\u00a0 While the McDonald brothers were working in<\/u><\/em> their business, Ray Kroc was working on<\/u><\/em> his, making his vision a reality.<\/p>\n One definition of a \u201creal\u201d business is a business that runs smoothly and profitably whether the owner is on the premises or not.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why so many startups fail.\u00a0 When the founder fails to make the business more than just a job for himself, and when the business depends on him to be there every day, doing his thing (whatever that is), it\u2019s a boat that can be capsized by any little ripple that comes along.<\/p>\n So, if you have a vision for your business that includes it being less and less dependent on you personally as time goes on, and if you have a well-conceived plan to carry out that vision, you have a good chance to be in the 4% of businesses that grow to maturity.\u00a0 If you\u2019re hands-on every day, just doin\u2019 it, doin\u2019 it, doin\u2019 it and hoping something good will come of it, you\u2019re probably not going to join the 4% club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to the IRS, there are 18.1 million businesses in this country, but only 100,000 that employ 100 or more people.\u00a0 So of the 18.1 million businesses in this country, 18 million of them are small businesses.\u00a0 In addition, more than a million businesses are started here each year, but 800,000 of them will be<\/p>\n