August 8, 2023 • 20 mins
Why do small businesses fail? This week we examine the 5 most common reasons why businesses don't survive long term.
Join me as I illustrate how multiple factors can contribute to a business's downfall, including cashflow issues, weak marketing, and the founder themselves.
And don't worry -- I don't leave you hanging. You'll get several possible solutions to each problem helping you to prioritize for a sustainable future.
This is tough love – not meant to discourage you, but to inspire and push you towards proactive steps for your business.
So, listen up as we dig into yet another reality of small business ownership.
Love what you heard? Let’s stay connected!
Subscribe to my newsletter for bold insights on leadership, strategy, and building your legacy — straight to your inbox every week.
Follow me on LinkedIn for more no-nonsense advice on leading with power and purpose.
And if you’re ready to dive even deeper, grab a copy of my book Bite-Sized Blasphemy and ignite your inner fire to do life and business your way.
The Business Blasphemy Podcast is sponsored by Corporate Rehab® Strategic Consulting.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is a really quick ad break because I got to
pay the bills.
The Business Blast for Mepodcast is sponsored by
Corporate Rehab StrategicConsulting.
Corporate Rehab providesstrategy operations and
leadership growth support.
So if you're ready to clearlyidentify what you and your
business need to move to thenext stage of growth, book a
call, head to the show notes andclick that link.
That wasn't so bad, was it?
Welcome to the Business Blastfor Me podcast, where we
(00:25):
question the sacred truths ofthe online business space and
the reverence with which they'reheld.
I'm your host, sarah Kahnspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
(00:46):
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitBusiness Blast for Me, let's do
it.
Hello, hello, blast Femurs.
This week's episode is a bit ofa serious one.
I'm putting on my consultanthat, really tapping into my
(01:06):
experience, my education and afuck ton of research because,
honestly, there have been a lotof conversations in the online
business space around how hardit is to keep business going
right now.
I know that the space itself ishard overall.
Right Fewer people are buyingat the rate they used to.
Revenue numbers aren't beingmet across the board, no matter
(01:28):
what the champagne sip and coachover on Instagram is telling
you.
Business is down everywhere andpeople are struggling, and it's
not news.
I've been talking about it hereand on social for weeks.
So today I want to actuallymove to the next step.
I want to tell you, I want toshow you, what to do about it,
especially if you feel like yourbusiness is failing, sinking on
(01:52):
the rocks, whatever you want tocall it.
And this is really and trulynot meant to be a Debbie Downer
episode.
This is more of a Tough LoveTruth episode that I hope gets
you thinking, because if yourbusiness foundation does feel a
little shaky right now,hopefully this episode helps you
take a more pragmatic look atwhat you can do about it.
(02:13):
And if your business feels fine, then hopefully this episode
helps you to stay alert to whatto look for, because the bottom
line is, we all becameentrepreneurs because we wanted
to succeed.
We wanted to build somethingfor ourselves, maybe for our
families, our legacy.
We're not here just shootingthe shit.
So today I'm taking a littleless of a sassy pants approach
(02:38):
and we're going to look at itmore like Sarah the business
consultant approach.
So here we go.
According to the Small BusinessAdministration, 33% of small
businesses will fail in thefirst two years and about 50%
will fail in the first five.
How many go on to survivebeyond 10 years or so?
Less than 30%.
There are a lot of reasons whybusinesses tank.
(03:00):
Okay, not enough demand foryour product, no proven or
vetted offer or revenue stream.
You grew too quickly.
You're spending too much money.
You can't maintain a healthylevel of cash flow.
You're not keeping properfinancial records and so you
have no clear understanding ofyour cash flow situation.
Your marketing isn't effective.
(03:20):
You hired the wrong people,like.
The list is actually reallylong.
So I'm not conceited enough tosit here and tell you that
business fails for X reasons,and X reasons only.
I used to work in events and oneof my roles was training in
event safety, and we used toteach our new team members the
what we called the Swiss Cheeseanalogy.
(03:41):
So I want you to imagine aslice of Swiss cheese.
It has some holes in it, right?
So imagine you have severalslices of Swiss cheese on a
sandwich and you pour mustard ormayo or whatever on your
sandwich on the top of all thatcheese.
Now, each slice may have a holein it, but so long as all of
the holes don't align with eachother, right, so that first
slice the hole doesn't alignwith the next slice down,
(04:04):
whatever you put on top of thecheese will be supported that
ketchup, that mayo, whatever butthe minute the holes start to
line up, disaster, because allthat shit will start to seep
through.
Business is kind of the same.
But having said that, thereare reasons that are common to
(04:32):
the majority of businesses thatdon't do well, that don't
survive.
So what are the top fivereasons a small business might
fail?
Well, I've consulted a numberof sources on this particularly
touchy subject.
So I've looked at, you know,investopedia, the Harvard
Business Review, small BusinessAdministration, the Better
Business Bureau.
I've read about a dozenLinkedIn articles and I actually
(04:53):
even got some information fromAABRS.
They are a UK based personaland corporate and solvency firm.
So, based on all of thatresearch, I feel like we've
picked out the five reasons thatthe majority seem to have a
consensus on.
So here they are.
The first one is obviously moneyissues.
You're either not making enoughmoney or you're spending too
(05:15):
much, or both.
Now what I've learned is thatmost business owners are
intimately aware of how m uchmoney they actually need to run
the business day to day, sothings like payroll overheads,
but they're less in tune withhow much money they're actually
generating.
Or they're living in a futureincome state versus a now income
(05:35):
state.
So they're living in a state oflike in the future, I'll have
this much money.
So they're making decisionsfrom a future state versus this
is how much money I have nowstate.
And as a business grows, whattends to happen is that the
overhead costs obviouslyincrease, but the revenue
generated from new and ongoingsales doesn't.
So how do you fix that?
Look, I'll be completely honestwith you.
(05:56):
It is not a fun answer.
You cut unnecessary costs.
Reducing your costs will notonly save your business, but
it'll buy you more time touncover what's really going on,
like what the real problems areand help you deal with them.
You know, come up with a plan.
Now that may include having tolet go of some team members and
running on a scaled back staff.
(06:17):
That's obviously hard,especially because when you're
an entrepreneur, you've likelycultivated really close
relationships with your team andthey become friends and they
become really hard to thinkabout.
You know letting people go, butthis is usually the biggest
source of income going out ofthe business, and no one said
being a leader was easy.
Now you can reduce the cost ofyour marketing expenses if
(06:39):
you're spending a lot of moneythere, but again, that may not
apply if your primary source ofmarketing is social media.
The third thing to look at isany miscellaneous spending.
So you know, is there anythingyou're spending money on that
you can do without?
For now, that includes in yourpersonal spending, not just your
business spending.
So what you consider then islimited.
You know, if you've looked atall of the money stuff, now you
(07:02):
consider limiting the servicesand products that you offer and
you focus only on those thingsthat are most profitable for you
.
Now this is really hard for somefounders who are visionary
types, because it's the newideas and the excitement, like.
That's where they find theirsatisfaction.
But hey, there's a reason.
I still do operations,implementation work.
(07:22):
I have to pay my fucking bills.
If I could live off doing mypodcast and, you know, the odd
speaking engagement, this wouldall look very, very different.
Ultimately, you have toremember that being a founder,
being a CEO, being a businessowner, is ultimately about
making hard decisions, pragmaticdecisions.
This is one of those adultingdecisions that never gets easier
, but it is what it is.
(07:44):
So Do you need to cut yourcosts?
Maybe it's worth having a lookat and then consider maybe doing
some of the work that you don'talways like doing, but you knew
it was profitable and it madeyou money.
You got to sit down and have acome to Jesus with yourself.
That's what I'm saying.
The second reason businessesfail not trusting the team you
(08:06):
hired or not hiring a team anddoing it all on your own.
I've seen this withsolopreneurs who are really high
on the visionary spectrum.
They don't want to work withother people or, more likely,
other people can't really workwith them because they're quote
unquote too visionary, and whatI mean by that is too many ideas
, not enough understanding ofhow much harder the operation
(08:27):
side has to work to support theconstant influx of new ideas.
I had a client once who everyMonday I'm not even exaggerating
, like every Monday we wouldcome to the team meeting and
they would have a brand new ideathey wanted implemented that
week, and that meant scrappingthe idea we were working on from
last week, and it was just.
It was a lot of work and that'shard for your team and also
that's not the best way to run abusiness.
(08:50):
Most founders have thisincredible skill very necessary
to entrepreneurship to createand sell amazing ideas, services
, products, but they're notoften as good people managers
and so they struggle to manage ateam right.
Smart ones will delegate thatshit to a people manager or an
ops manager, and that solves oneproblem.
(09:10):
But then actually listening totheir team, trusting them, is
the second piece to that.
Having a trusted team that youlisten to means sometimes having
to let go of ideas that exciteyou, because the team is often
closest to the customers and youknow what they really want.
Or they can see the operationalbottlenecks, or they can see
the bigger picture.
(09:31):
That's not a dig at all atvisionary founders, no, but it's
meant to keep you in your zoneof genius.
Okay, lean on your team and behonest about what's happening in
the business and solicit theirfeedback and support.
It's not all on you.
Plus, all of the research showsthat a lack of transparency
from the founder has been provento be a major cause of
disengaged team members.
(09:52):
So there's that right.
The third reason most businessesfail is overall business
planning, especially in theonline small business space.
Honestly, in this space, thereis almost a complete lack of
actual business planning,especially because of the
(10:13):
rhetoric that all it takes tostart a small business is a
phone and a laptop and maybe aswimming pool.
I know I'm being facetious, Iapologize and also I don't
apologize.
That is not true.
If you want to run a businessthat has a chance of actually
beating the stats, you need tohave a sound business plan, not
a giant fucking 600-pagedocument that you see people
(10:34):
submitting to investors on SharkTank and all that crap.
But at the very least, youshould have a clear description
of the business.
Okay, so like, what is ityou're going to do, aka, what
problem are you solving in themarketplace?
That's kind of critical, right.
Your business plan should alsooutline any current or future
(10:55):
employee needs that you have ormanagement needs.
Yeah, you've got to think ahead.
You should 100% do a SWOTanalysis.
So strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats
especially the opportunities andthreats in the broader market
you should have an understandingof your cash flow needs and
your budget for at least thefirst year.
If you're really ambitious, thefirst two to five years.
(11:17):
Yes, again, planning aheadright.
And you should have a clearunderstanding of the market.
So that means doing acompetitor analysis.
One of the big reasons mostbusinesses will struggle is not
believing that there are anycompetitors out there.
So understanding what you're upagainst is kind of important.
Yeah, so hands up if you've doneall of that for your business.
(11:38):
I don't see very many hands upand, by the way, I'm sorry, I'm
really really trying hard not tobe mean.
That is not how I want you totake this.
I'm not calling you out, okay,I am calling you in.
You are here because we're onthe same wavelength and I want
you to be successful.
I want you to succeed and so Iwant you to also understand that
(12:02):
if you haven't done this,there's always time.
You can do a business plan atany point.
So if this is something thatyou have not done and you really
kind of want to do it, dm me,I'll walk you through it.
We will talk about it.
If you want support with it,cool, we can talk about what
that looks like.
But this is something youshould do no matter what stage
(12:24):
of business you're at,especially if your business is
pivoted or it's grown and thingshave changed because the plan
that you started with is not theplan you're going to finish
with.
It's critical to do a clearplan so that you have a plan and
also you'll know realisticallywhere your gaps are and that can
help mitigate future problems.
(12:44):
Hopefully that makes sense.
Here's reason number fourBusinesses fail because they
suck at marketing, and I don'tjust mean they don't market,
which a lot of small businessesdon't do.
Let's be completely honest,right?
I've seen a lot of people whothink that because they talked
about their offer or theirservice on social media once or
twice a month, they've marketed.
But really you haven't.
(13:04):
If you're not talking aboutyour business, you don't have a
business.
I think I've said that before.
Or they don't have a marketingplan at all and they're chasing
the wrong success metrics.
You know they're looking for ahuge following, or they want to
go viral and they think that ifI can go viral, I can make it.
But here's a spoiler alert foryou Virality does not increase
engagement or revenue, and thatis the metric you should be
(13:26):
following like a fucking hawk.
Are your marketing campaigns,your marketing efforts,
converting into actual sales andif yes, what's the ratio?
If no, why the fuck not?
This is one of the reasons whyI truly think that a VA or an
OBM is not always the firstright hire for a solopreneur.
You should hire a marketingmanager or a marketing
(13:48):
consultant to help you figureout what your marketing plan is,
because that is the shit that'sgoing to help you make money.
But there are too many foundersthat are like I've started a
business and I want to stand myown genius and they go and start
hiring team members todelegates.
It makes them feel special.
Fuck that shit.
You want your business to work.
You got to sell your business.
Ok.
Now here's the fifth reason,and I swear I am not picking on
(14:10):
founders, but reason number fivefounders, all right.
Entrepreneurs are an incrediblebreed of human.
They have the guts to go andtry new and innovative things.
They're not scared of a littlerisk.
They have incredible vision.
They have the ability to thrivein creation and manifestation,
(14:32):
and it's wonderful.
And as you hit the growth stageof your business, shit is going
to get boring, because it hasto If it's going to survive long
term.
It needs to become morebureaucratic, more process
oriented, and you honestly needto take fewer chances, or at
least far more calculated ones.
(14:53):
I'm not saying you turn it intoa corporate, but I'm also saying
you need to be acutely awarethat as you grow, you need to
take a page out of the corporateplaybook in order to survive
long term.
Growth does not survive in avacuum, and the laissez-faire,
come what may attitude that gotyou here as an early founder is
not going to get you there.
So as you grow, you need toinvest less in friends and more
(15:17):
in specialists.
You need a clear set ofprocesses.
You need to have a plan thatyou follow and that the team can
follow.
Yes, you can still take risksthe risks actually become
exponentially bigger but almostevery element of your business
now has to up level as well.
Maybe now there's a hierarchy.
(15:38):
I know some of you are like ew,but really there's a hierarchy
because you need to havesomething everyone can follow
and everyone knows how to go to.
Maybe now you have anorganizational chart.
There's someone who is clearlyin charge it doesn't have to be
you Rolls on the team becomemore formalized and specialized.
There's less crossing of linesand crossing of boundaries in
what was once a free-for-all,where everyone is dug in and all
(16:01):
hands on deck in an environmentand for someone who is an
entrepreneur, your instinct maybe to fight all of that, because
it does start to feel corporate.
I promise you it's not, not ifit's done with intention and
it's led by your vision.
This is where you get to goback to your mission and your
(16:22):
vision and see if you're trulyembodying them.
It becomes more and moreimportant to make decisions that
are better for everyone, notjust you anymore, and that can
be incredibly challenging too,but the payoff is worth it.
Now, having said all that, howdo you know if it is actually
(16:42):
time to let go, like to just letgo of the whole thing?
Well, that's up to you entirely.
There's no threshold for whatfailure and I say that in quotes
okay looks like, and there area lot of really profound
definitions for things likefailure and success that I won't
bore you with today.
You can Google them.
There's a ton of reallybeautiful graphics that talk
(17:02):
about it.
But if you are worried all thetime, if you are mentally
drained, if you are emotionallyspent, honestly, to the point
where it's really begun toimpact your health, then at the
very least it's time to take abreak, to get some space and to
reassess.
I know a lot of entrepreneurswho've done this over the last
couple of years.
You know they've taken timeaway and then come back with a
(17:25):
renewed sense of purpose andclarity that they lacked before.
Some of them closed theirbusiness down to take a break
and some just took a break,right, kept the business running
but took a break.
It really depends on what yoursituation is and what it allows
for, but that is something thatyou owe to yourself and to your
business.
If things are feeling hard, youneed to take time away, because
(17:46):
it isn't taking time away thatthat clarity comes.
And please do not beat yourselfup.
Do not think you have quoteunquote failed If you come back
with the decision that yourbusiness has done.
This is really the only placewhere we like hold on to things
with a death grip, right In anyother area of your life, when
(18:06):
you stop being interested orinvested in something, you quit,
and we need to normalize thatbeing okay in entrepreneurship
as well.
If you are done, then be done,give yourself grace, and if
you're not, then take the timeto figure out what you need to
do to keep going.
(18:27):
That is not gonna constantlyput you in an emotional and
spiritual and mental deficit anda financial deficit and a time
deficit.
Talk to somebody who can help.
If you've got no one to talk tocome talk to me.
That's what we do, all right,and that's that.
(18:47):
This may have felt like areally heavy episode, but
remember there's nothing you canfuck up so badly that it can't
be fixed, and success andfailure are fluid.
You get to decide what thosedefinitions are for you and for
your individual situation and,if nothing else, this should
serve as a reminder that if youdesire to run a quote unquote
(19:10):
real business, it's never toolate to start treating it like
one.
And if it would be helpful toknow what your current state of
the union looks like, sign upfor a free assessment on my
website, getcorporaterehabcom.
We will look at where you arein terms of business maturity
and growth and what you need toprioritize right now in order to
continue building a sustainablebusiness that beats the odds.
(19:33):
Head to the show notes for thelink.
That is it for this week.
You can have success withoutthe BS and guess what You'll
fucking deserve to?
I'll talk to you soon.
That's it for this week.
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blast For Me podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
(19:54):
, help assist her out bysubscribing and, if you're
feeling extra sassy, rating thispodcast.
And don't forget to share thepodcast with others.
Head over tobusinessblastformepodcastcom to
connect with us and learn more.
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
Hey, this is a really quick ad break because I got to
pay the bills.
The Business Blast for Mepodcast is sponsored by
Corporate Rehab StrategicConsulting.
Corporate Rehab providesstrategy operations and
leadership growth support.
So if you're ready to clearlyidentify what you and your
business need to move to thenext stage of growth, book a
call, head to the show notes andclick that link.
That wasn't so bad, was it?
Welcome to the Business Blastfor Me podcast, where we
(00:25):
question the sacred truths ofthe online business space and
the reverence with which they'reheld.
I'm your host, sarah Kahnspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
(00:46):
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitBusiness Blast for Me, let's do
it.
Hello, hello, blast Femurs.
This week's episode is a bit ofa serious one.
I'm putting on my consultanthat, really tapping into my
(01:06):
experience, my education and afuck ton of research because,
honestly, there have been a lotof conversations in the online
business space around how hardit is to keep business going
right now.
I know that the space itself ishard overall.
Right Fewer people are buyingat the rate they used to.
Revenue numbers aren't beingmet across the board, no matter
(01:28):
what the champagne sip and coachover on Instagram is telling
you.
Business is down everywhere andpeople are struggling, and it's
not news.
I've been talking about it hereand on social for weeks.
So today I want to actuallymove to the next step.
I want to tell you, I want toshow you, what to do about it,
especially if you feel like yourbusiness is failing, sinking on
(01:52):
the rocks, whatever you want tocall it.
And this is really and trulynot meant to be a Debbie Downer
episode.
This is more of a Tough LoveTruth episode that I hope gets
you thinking, because if yourbusiness foundation does feel a
little shaky right now,hopefully this episode helps you
take a more pragmatic look atwhat you can do about it.
(02:13):
And if your business feels fine, then hopefully this episode
helps you to stay alert to whatto look for, because the bottom
line is, we all becameentrepreneurs because we wanted
to succeed.
We wanted to build somethingfor ourselves, maybe for our
families, our legacy.
We're not here just shootingthe shit.
So today I'm taking a littleless of a sassy pants approach
(02:38):
and we're going to look at itmore like Sarah the business
consultant approach.
So here we go.
According to the Small BusinessAdministration, 33% of small
businesses will fail in thefirst two years and about 50%
will fail in the first five.
How many go on to survivebeyond 10 years or so?
Less than 30%.
There are a lot of reasons whybusinesses tank.
(03:00):
Okay, not enough demand foryour product, no proven or
vetted offer or revenue stream.
You grew too quickly.
You're spending too much money.
You can't maintain a healthylevel of cash flow.
You're not keeping properfinancial records and so you
have no clear understanding ofyour cash flow situation.
Your marketing isn't effective.
(03:20):
You hired the wrong people,like.
The list is actually reallylong.
So I'm not conceited enough tosit here and tell you that
business fails for X reasons,and X reasons only.
I used to work in events and oneof my roles was training in
event safety, and we used toteach our new team members the
what we called the Swiss Cheeseanalogy.
(03:41):
So I want you to imagine aslice of Swiss cheese.
It has some holes in it, right?
So imagine you have severalslices of Swiss cheese on a
sandwich and you pour mustard ormayo or whatever on your
sandwich on the top of all thatcheese.
Now, each slice may have a holein it, but so long as all of
the holes don't align with eachother, right, so that first
slice the hole doesn't alignwith the next slice down,
(04:04):
whatever you put on top of thecheese will be supported that
ketchup, that mayo, whatever butthe minute the holes start to
line up, disaster, because allthat shit will start to seep
through.
Business is kind of the same.
But having said that, thereare reasons that are common to
(04:32):
the majority of businesses thatdon't do well, that don't
survive.
So what are the top fivereasons a small business might
fail?
Well, I've consulted a numberof sources on this particularly
touchy subject.
So I've looked at, you know,investopedia, the Harvard
Business Review, small BusinessAdministration, the Better
Business Bureau.
I've read about a dozenLinkedIn articles and I actually
(04:53):
even got some information fromAABRS.
They are a UK based personaland corporate and solvency firm.
So, based on all of thatresearch, I feel like we've
picked out the five reasons thatthe majority seem to have a
consensus on.
So here they are.
The first one is obviously moneyissues.
You're either not making enoughmoney or you're spending too
(05:15):
much, or both.
Now what I've learned is thatmost business owners are
intimately aware of how m uchmoney they actually need to run
the business day to day, sothings like payroll overheads,
but they're less in tune withhow much money they're actually
generating.
Or they're living in a futureincome state versus a now income
(05:35):
state.
So they're living in a state oflike in the future, I'll have
this much money.
So they're making decisionsfrom a future state versus this
is how much money I have nowstate.
And as a business grows, whattends to happen is that the
overhead costs obviouslyincrease, but the revenue
generated from new and ongoingsales doesn't.
So how do you fix that?
Look, I'll be completely honestwith you.
(05:56):
It is not a fun answer.
You cut unnecessary costs.
Reducing your costs will notonly save your business, but
it'll buy you more time touncover what's really going on,
like what the real problems areand help you deal with them.
You know, come up with a plan.
Now that may include having tolet go of some team members and
running on a scaled back staff.
(06:17):
That's obviously hard,especially because when you're
an entrepreneur, you've likelycultivated really close
relationships with your team andthey become friends and they
become really hard to thinkabout.
You know letting people go, butthis is usually the biggest
source of income going out ofthe business, and no one said
being a leader was easy.
Now you can reduce the cost ofyour marketing expenses if
(06:39):
you're spending a lot of moneythere, but again, that may not
apply if your primary source ofmarketing is social media.
The third thing to look at isany miscellaneous spending.
So you know, is there anythingyou're spending money on that
you can do without?
For now, that includes in yourpersonal spending, not just your
business spending.
So what you consider then islimited.
You know, if you've looked atall of the money stuff, now you
(07:02):
consider limiting the servicesand products that you offer and
you focus only on those thingsthat are most profitable for you
.
Now this is really hard for somefounders who are visionary
types, because it's the newideas and the excitement, like.
That's where they find theirsatisfaction.
But hey, there's a reason.
I still do operations,implementation work.
(07:22):
I have to pay my fucking bills.
If I could live off doing mypodcast and, you know, the odd
speaking engagement, this wouldall look very, very different.
Ultimately, you have toremember that being a founder,
being a CEO, being a businessowner, is ultimately about
making hard decisions, pragmaticdecisions.
This is one of those adultingdecisions that never gets easier
, but it is what it is.
(07:44):
So Do you need to cut yourcosts?
Maybe it's worth having a lookat and then consider maybe doing
some of the work that you don'talways like doing, but you knew
it was profitable and it madeyou money.
You got to sit down and have acome to Jesus with yourself.
That's what I'm saying.
The second reason businessesfail not trusting the team you
(08:06):
hired or not hiring a team anddoing it all on your own.
I've seen this withsolopreneurs who are really high
on the visionary spectrum.
They don't want to work withother people or, more likely,
other people can't really workwith them because they're quote
unquote too visionary, and whatI mean by that is too many ideas
, not enough understanding ofhow much harder the operation
(08:27):
side has to work to support theconstant influx of new ideas.
I had a client once who everyMonday I'm not even exaggerating
, like every Monday we wouldcome to the team meeting and
they would have a brand new ideathey wanted implemented that
week, and that meant scrappingthe idea we were working on from
last week, and it was just.
It was a lot of work and that'shard for your team and also
that's not the best way to run abusiness.
(08:50):
Most founders have thisincredible skill very necessary
to entrepreneurship to createand sell amazing ideas, services
, products, but they're notoften as good people managers
and so they struggle to manage ateam right.
Smart ones will delegate thatshit to a people manager or an
ops manager, and that solves oneproblem.
(09:10):
But then actually listening totheir team, trusting them, is
the second piece to that.
Having a trusted team that youlisten to means sometimes having
to let go of ideas that exciteyou, because the team is often
closest to the customers and youknow what they really want.
Or they can see the operationalbottlenecks, or they can see
the bigger picture.
(09:31):
That's not a dig at all atvisionary founders, no, but it's
meant to keep you in your zoneof genius.
Okay, lean on your team and behonest about what's happening in
the business and solicit theirfeedback and support.
It's not all on you.
Plus, all of the research showsthat a lack of transparency
from the founder has been provento be a major cause of
disengaged team members.
(09:52):
So there's that right.
The third reason most businessesfail is overall business
planning, especially in theonline small business space.
Honestly, in this space, thereis almost a complete lack of
actual business planning,especially because of the
(10:13):
rhetoric that all it takes tostart a small business is a
phone and a laptop and maybe aswimming pool.
I know I'm being facetious, Iapologize and also I don't
apologize.
That is not true.
If you want to run a businessthat has a chance of actually
beating the stats, you need tohave a sound business plan, not
a giant fucking 600-pagedocument that you see people
(10:34):
submitting to investors on SharkTank and all that crap.
But at the very least, youshould have a clear description
of the business.
Okay, so like, what is ityou're going to do, aka, what
problem are you solving in themarketplace?
That's kind of critical, right.
Your business plan should alsooutline any current or future
(10:55):
employee needs that you have ormanagement needs.
Yeah, you've got to think ahead.
You should 100% do a SWOTanalysis.
So strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats
especially the opportunities andthreats in the broader market
you should have an understandingof your cash flow needs and
your budget for at least thefirst year.
If you're really ambitious, thefirst two to five years.
(11:17):
Yes, again, planning aheadright.
And you should have a clearunderstanding of the market.
So that means doing acompetitor analysis.
One of the big reasons mostbusinesses will struggle is not
believing that there are anycompetitors out there.
So understanding what you're upagainst is kind of important.
Yeah, so hands up if you've doneall of that for your business.
(11:38):
I don't see very many hands upand, by the way, I'm sorry, I'm
really really trying hard not tobe mean.
That is not how I want you totake this.
I'm not calling you out, okay,I am calling you in.
You are here because we're onthe same wavelength and I want
you to be successful.
I want you to succeed and so Iwant you to also understand that
(12:02):
if you haven't done this,there's always time.
You can do a business plan atany point.
So if this is something thatyou have not done and you really
kind of want to do it, dm me,I'll walk you through it.
We will talk about it.
If you want support with it,cool, we can talk about what
that looks like.
But this is something youshould do no matter what stage
(12:24):
of business you're at,especially if your business is
pivoted or it's grown and thingshave changed because the plan
that you started with is not theplan you're going to finish
with.
It's critical to do a clearplan so that you have a plan and
also you'll know realisticallywhere your gaps are and that can
help mitigate future problems.
(12:44):
Hopefully that makes sense.
Here's reason number fourBusinesses fail because they
suck at marketing, and I don'tjust mean they don't market,
which a lot of small businessesdon't do.
Let's be completely honest,right?
I've seen a lot of people whothink that because they talked
about their offer or theirservice on social media once or
twice a month, they've marketed.
But really you haven't.
(13:04):
If you're not talking aboutyour business, you don't have a
business.
I think I've said that before.
Or they don't have a marketingplan at all and they're chasing
the wrong success metrics.
You know they're looking for ahuge following, or they want to
go viral and they think that ifI can go viral, I can make it.
But here's a spoiler alert foryou Virality does not increase
engagement or revenue, and thatis the metric you should be
(13:26):
following like a fucking hawk.
Are your marketing campaigns,your marketing efforts,
converting into actual sales andif yes, what's the ratio?
If no, why the fuck not?
This is one of the reasons whyI truly think that a VA or an
OBM is not always the firstright hire for a solopreneur.
You should hire a marketingmanager or a marketing
(13:48):
consultant to help you figureout what your marketing plan is,
because that is the shit that'sgoing to help you make money.
But there are too many foundersthat are like I've started a
business and I want to stand myown genius and they go and start
hiring team members todelegates.
It makes them feel special.
Fuck that shit.
You want your business to work.
You got to sell your business.
Ok.
Now here's the fifth reason,and I swear I am not picking on
(14:10):
founders, but reason number fivefounders, all right.
Entrepreneurs are an incrediblebreed of human.
They have the guts to go andtry new and innovative things.
They're not scared of a littlerisk.
They have incredible vision.
They have the ability to thrivein creation and manifestation,
(14:32):
and it's wonderful.
And as you hit the growth stageof your business, shit is going
to get boring, because it hasto If it's going to survive long
term.
It needs to become morebureaucratic, more process
oriented, and you honestly needto take fewer chances, or at
least far more calculated ones.
(14:53):
I'm not saying you turn it intoa corporate, but I'm also saying
you need to be acutely awarethat as you grow, you need to
take a page out of the corporateplaybook in order to survive
long term.
Growth does not survive in avacuum, and the laissez-faire,
come what may attitude that gotyou here as an early founder is
not going to get you there.
So as you grow, you need toinvest less in friends and more
(15:17):
in specialists.
You need a clear set ofprocesses.
You need to have a plan thatyou follow and that the team can
follow.
Yes, you can still take risksthe risks actually become
exponentially bigger but almostevery element of your business
now has to up level as well.
Maybe now there's a hierarchy.
(15:38):
I know some of you are like ew,but really there's a hierarchy
because you need to havesomething everyone can follow
and everyone knows how to go to.
Maybe now you have anorganizational chart.
There's someone who is clearlyin charge it doesn't have to be
you Rolls on the team becomemore formalized and specialized.
There's less crossing of linesand crossing of boundaries in
what was once a free-for-all,where everyone is dug in and all
(16:01):
hands on deck in an environmentand for someone who is an
entrepreneur, your instinct maybe to fight all of that, because
it does start to feel corporate.
I promise you it's not, not ifit's done with intention and
it's led by your vision.
This is where you get to goback to your mission and your
(16:22):
vision and see if you're trulyembodying them.
It becomes more and moreimportant to make decisions that
are better for everyone, notjust you anymore, and that can
be incredibly challenging too,but the payoff is worth it.
Now, having said all that, howdo you know if it is actually
(16:42):
time to let go, like to just letgo of the whole thing?
Well, that's up to you entirely.
There's no threshold for whatfailure and I say that in quotes
okay looks like, and there area lot of really profound
definitions for things likefailure and success that I won't
bore you with today.
You can Google them.
There's a ton of reallybeautiful graphics that talk
(17:02):
about it.
But if you are worried all thetime, if you are mentally
drained, if you are emotionallyspent, honestly, to the point
where it's really begun toimpact your health, then at the
very least it's time to take abreak, to get some space and to
reassess.
I know a lot of entrepreneurswho've done this over the last
couple of years.
You know they've taken timeaway and then come back with a
(17:25):
renewed sense of purpose andclarity that they lacked before.
Some of them closed theirbusiness down to take a break
and some just took a break,right, kept the business running
but took a break.
It really depends on what yoursituation is and what it allows
for, but that is something thatyou owe to yourself and to your
business.
If things are feeling hard, youneed to take time away, because
(17:46):
it isn't taking time away thatthat clarity comes.
And please do not beat yourselfup.
Do not think you have quoteunquote failed If you come back
with the decision that yourbusiness has done.
This is really the only placewhere we like hold on to things
with a death grip, right In anyother area of your life, when
(18:06):
you stop being interested orinvested in something, you quit,
and we need to normalize thatbeing okay in entrepreneurship
as well.
If you are done, then be done,give yourself grace, and if
you're not, then take the timeto figure out what you need to
do to keep going.
(18:27):
That is not gonna constantlyput you in an emotional and
spiritual and mental deficit anda financial deficit and a time
deficit.
Talk to somebody who can help.
If you've got no one to talk tocome talk to me.
That's what we do, all right,and that's that.
(18:47):
This may have felt like areally heavy episode, but
remember there's nothing you canfuck up so badly that it can't
be fixed, and success andfailure are fluid.
You get to decide what thosedefinitions are for you and for
your individual situation and,if nothing else, this should
serve as a reminder that if youdesire to run a quote unquote
(19:10):
real business, it's never toolate to start treating it like
one.
And if it would be helpful toknow what your current state of
the union looks like, sign upfor a free assessment on my
website, getcorporaterehabcom.
We will look at where you arein terms of business maturity
and growth and what you need toprioritize right now in order to
continue building a sustainablebusiness that beats the odds.
(19:33):
Head to the show notes for thelink.
That is it for this week.
You can have success withoutthe BS and guess what You'll
fucking deserve to?
I'll talk to you soon.
That's it for this week.
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blast For Me podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
(19:54):
, help assist her out bysubscribing and, if you're
feeling extra sassy, rating thispodcast.
And don't forget to share thepodcast with others.
Head over tobusinessblastformepodcastcom to
connect with us and learn more.
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
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