Every January people make New Year’s Resolutions. By February 80% of people have already failed to keep their resolutions. If your resolution this year is to launch a small business, you can overcome the February doomsday of many resolutions.
About 20% of small businesses fail in their first year which is a far better statistic than the average New Year’s resolution. And, that means there is an 80% survival rate for a startup small business to survive the first year. This survival rate has remained relatively constant for the past 25 years. But, only about 50% of small businesses will still be open by the 5th year according to the Small Business Administration.
While the statistics can be overwhelming, there are many factors that you can start to take control of now. Gain insight from other entrepreneurs. TED is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing ideas through talks that are typically 18 minutes or less. These TEDTalks cover a wide range of topics and are given by inspirational speakers across the globe including entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur magazine even went so far as to say that entrepreneurs must see these 10 TEDTalks. Now that one, or all, of the TEDTalks has motivated and challenged you to push on with your small business launch it is time to start working on how to launch.
Thorough research and planning is one means by which to make your startup resilient from the beginning. By researching the market and planning how to achieve realistic goals, your small business will have a strong foundation. The Business Foundation Series is designed to familiarize people new to entrepreneurship to the fundamentals of starting a business and then connect you to a partner organization that will best assist your startup.
Furthermore, organizational skills and time management are particularly useful for any person starting off their business with themselves as the only employee. These soft skills can be learned by anyone. As the CEO and employee, you will need to maintain a systematic means of conducting business and keeping yourself on track to achieve each milestone you have laid out in your planning stage. Check out one of our books to learn how to improve your organizational and/or time management skills.
