Here’s Why Some small businesses fail…and what you can do To Avoid it
I never thought I’d be here.
I went to college, got my accounting degree, and then went into public accounting followed by many years in corporate. That’s what you’re supposed to do after you get your degree, right?
But, eventually, the work I was doing was no longer exciting to me. I wasn’t fulfilled. I needed a change. I spent time looking for positions with other companies but nothing felt right. It all felt the same as what I was already doing.
So I decided to start helping small business owners with their finances while I was still in my corporate job. It was so exciting to use my experience to work with different companies and help them understand their money better. Watching them grow and do new things because they had a good handle on their financial information was very fulfilling for me.
I took a risk. I left my corporate job and salary and decided to start helping business owners full-time.
I had the expertise they needed to supplement their amazing product and service offerings. I could help them to understand their business better and use that knowledge to improve their cash flow and grow their business.
As a small business owner, you took a risk as well. You realized you have an amazing product or service to offer so you’ve invested your time, money, heart, and soul into providing it to your customers.
But, sometimes things we need to do in our business don’t fall into our natural abilities. Some things are hard. But we still need to do them.
Many businesses fail in the first five years. Why is that? The obvious reason is they don’t make enough money to stay afloat. But I wonder how many of those businesses might have made it if they had a good understanding of where they stood with their money? Did they fall into the trap of working so hard to provide for their customers that they lost sight of what was happening with their finances? Did they not understand their money well enough to make crucial business decisions?
I’m going to say that these things played at least a part in the failure of some small businesses. You’ve heard the saying “you need to spend money to make money”. And it’s true. You can’t grow if you never spend. And you might feel like you can’t spend because you’re afraid you don’t have enough money. Maybe you want to hire help to free up time to focus on your business. But you’re afraid you don’t have enough money to do it. Or you want to start selling a new product but spending money to do market research, product development, and product launch is daunting. What if it fails?
Ok, enough with the doom and gloom talk.
The good news for us small business owners that are working with a small staff and small budgets is that you can understand your money better. You can have the information you need available to make business decisions. You don’t have to operate from a place of hoping that you’re making the right decision because you’ll have the financial information you need to back it up that the decision you are making is the right one.
It took me a long time to realize that I can’t do everything in my business. Maybe I shouldn’t say “can’t” because I’m fairly resourceful and can do many things I set my mind to with a little research. But the time it takes me to do certain things that aren’t aligned with my knowledge and talents is much longer than if I bring in an expert to help.
As business owners, we all need to make the decision of when to bring in an expert to help us in those areas that are difficult for us or that we just don’t like. It might be a difficult decision deciding if we should spend money on a coach, accountant, or copywriter. But it could also be the best decision we ever make.
Frequently, I encounter business owners who’ve tried to do manage their business finances themselves.
They are either new business owners starting out and aren’t sure what they should be tracking or what they should be looking at to understand their business finances. Or they are further along trying to spend time on nights and weekends doing budgets and bookkeeping because they don’t have time during their normal workday to do these tasks.
I’ve made the decision recently to seriously consider hiring someone to help me with administrative tasks that for me are a huge time suck and take me away from doing what I love which is helping people like you with your money. It’s scary to make this decision but I know if I want to continue to grow, I have no choice. I have to have time to focus on my clients and the services I’m offering them. I’ve also hired a coach. Someone who is further along on the path I want to be on and can give me their expertise so I can cut the time it takes me to get to the point they're at.
What decisions do you need to make to enlist help in your business?
Are you a new business owner that could use some help making sure you’re on the right track with your business finances? Or are you looking to outsource your accounting tasks so you can focus on growing? No matter which one of these you are—I can help you.
My superpower is understanding small businesses and helping them to develop strategies and processes that free up their time. They gain peace of mind that they know where their business stands financially any time they need to know. They don’t have to second guess their decisions or hold off on investing in the business because they lack clarity with their money. They are confident in decision making, investing, and moving their business forward.
If you’d like to feel more confident and gain clarity with your money, schedule a free 15-minute no-obligation call with me. I guarantee you that no matter where you are in business I have a program or package that will work for you.
What have you got to lose?
