VOL. 131 | NO. 205 | Thursday, October 13, 2016
Guest Column
Dr. Mary C. McDonald
How to Make Your New Business Fail
BY MARY C. McDONALD
Congratulations, you are an entrepreneur! You have a great idea and are ready to launch your new business. You’re not alone. This year, according to the Small Business Administration, you are among the other 399,999 folks with a great idea poised to open their doors for business. But don’t worry, there is room for success.
The SBA states that you could be one of the two-thirds that survive more than two years, or the 44 percent that make it four years, or you could be one of the 80,000 businesses that fail each year. It’s up to you and what you do next. It’s always about the next move you make in executing your plan. You do have a plan, right? If you do, execute it and keep it a living document, able to be redefined, restructured and redeveloped at a moment’s notice at the first sign of fragility in your business.
If you don’t have a plan, let me give you one. It’s called “Dr. McDonald’s Advice on How to Close a New Business in 365 Days or Less.”
Here are a few things that you could do now in order to ensure that your business closes down quickly. First, forget your mission; forget what your business is about. Don’t keep the main thing, the main thing. Change your approach with every customer, so that no one really knows what you are all about.
If you’re looking for a catchy motto for your business, try this one: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” It looks great on coffee mugs and T-shirts – just don’t order too many.
In fact, you just might want to keep your business to yourself and not talk about it at all. Why worry about getting the word out?
There are so many innovative approaches, hundreds of creative strategies to make your business “hot.” True, finding the right ways takes time, research, market studies – all of those requirements that just eat up your time. Do you really want to put in those 18-hour days?
Better still, locate your business in a place that is impossible to find so you won’t be interrupted all day long by customers.
Be sure not to ask for advice. If you are criticized, get your back up and take it personally. Anyone can learn from mistakes, but then that will mean admitting you made one. It is better to be clandestine, make all decisions yourself and not talk to employees. Your business motto: “Mind your own business.”
Be sure to overspend, even if there is no sign of income on the horizon. Better still, don’t have a financial plan; then you won’t have to worry about that pesky bottom line or those annoying cash flow statements.
There are many reasons why small businesses fail, poor planning, inexperienced management, inadequate financing, poor location, etc. There are even more reasons why they succeed. If you are willing to work hard, have experience in the business, plan and execute your plan, success is calling your name.
Dr. Mary C. McDonald, a National Education Consultant, can be reached at 901-574-2956 or mcd-partners.com.