Business Failure 15: Solutions That May Help You Avoid Failure

This concludes our series on reasons for business failures

Businesses fail for a variety of reasons. In the pervious posts we discussed several reasons. While many of the causes for business failure rely on the economy or other causes out of your control, you can prevent most of the causes we discussed with a good (yet flexible) business plan, a mastermind team, and visits to public or private consultants. 

A Good Business Plan

Most business owners prepare a business plan for banks or investors to get money. One very successful owner prepared and operated from his business plan. He believed preparing everything on paper before he spent a dollar helped build his business. His plan was dirty, dog-eared, and marked up because he referred to it almost every day.

Preparing and using a business plan  forces you to consider and contemplate your:

• Business idea, uniqueness, management team, and other people assets
• Market analysis, competition, client profile, and product schematics
• Marketing plan including market research, marketing message, strategy, campaigns, methods, vehicles, sales, and client retention
• Financial plan including funding, financing, milestones, accounting, statement of accounts, general ledgers, accounts payables, and accounts receivables
• Purchasing plans, discounts, suppliers, vendors, and cost analysis

Mastermind Team

Mastermind teams work together to help one another achieve their goals:

• A mastermind team consists of 4-5 people who want to improve their lives.
• The team meets once a month for about 90 minutes
• Each team member
  • States their goal
  • Outlines the action they took with results
  • Asks for brainstorming ideas from the others with challenges or problems
  • Describes 2-4 actions they will take before the next meeting

 Public or Private Consultants

You can also avoid business failure through the advice of public or private consultants. You don’t have to pay a lot of money for public programs such as

• Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)
• Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)
• Business Resource Centers (BRC)
• Centers for Entrepreneurship
• Manufacturing Enterprise Programs
• Business Incubators

Private business consulting firms also exist in your community or on-line. Find good ones for you.

Tuesday we begin a series containing stories about business operations