It’s time for the inaugural Top 5 Tuesday. Each Tuesday, I will break down a ‘David Letterman’-like list of things that are pertinent to my viewing audience.
Below, you fill find the main reasons I have discovered why people either never get started in business or can’t get their business off the ground after they start:
1. Fear
Plain and simple, fear holds most people back from achieving what they want in life, whether it is in business or elsewhere. It could be fear of failure, fear of success (yes, there is such a thing) fear of the unknown, or some other fear that opens the door to doubt and indecision.
When I was working in Corporate America, I would routinely have lunch with some friends and during these lunches we would occasionally talk about our aspirations outside of the cubicle walls. Now, these guys were all ambitious and very smart-much smarter than me. We all talked about how much more money we could be making if ‘we went out on our own’. Than, when I would bring up the idea that I wanted to start my own company (and soon), I got a lot of horrified looks. “Why would you want to leave a steady paycheck for the unknown?” “What if you fail?” These were the first questions out of their mouths. The questions people ask invariably highlight what they are thinking and feeling. Fear can cripple even the brightest minds.
2. Lack of Support
When you launch a business, it takes a great deal of time, effort, dedication and sacrifice. Support from your family, friends and colleagues can be either a tremendous help, or a huge hindrance in making your business a success. If you are an aspiring business owner and you don’t have the full support of your spouse, or significant other in launching your venture, than your journey to the top is going to be harder. You can’t always expect your friends or colleagues to be behind you 100%. They may be jealous of your courage and ambition. Be careful who you confide in, but make sure you have somebody in your corner that you can lean on.
3. Improper Focus
I am often surprised at the number of people that start business ventures in areas of which they either; a: have no experience or, b: have no particular talent or affinity. This is not to say that you can’t learn or acquire a taste for something in which you have neither experience nor talent, but why stack the deck against yourself when there are easy fixes?
Experience can be gained. For example, if you want to invest in real estate and flip houses, you can join a local real estate investment group and meet and talk to some experienced investors. You could apprentice with an experienced investor and learn the ropes (free and competent labor can be enticing). Or, if you wanted to start a hamburger franchise, you might think about taking a part time job at McDonald’s to learn the business (it might be a hit to your pride, but not doing so could cost you lots of money).
4. No Momentum
Momentum is very critical in business. It can often mean the difference between a breakthrough quarter or months of red ink. A lot of new business owners that I talk to, whether they have recently left a job or have been on their own for a year or two underestimate the power of momentum. When you are wearing all the hats that a business owner has to wear (sales, accounting, customer service, etc.) it is hard to keep
When you are on a roll in a particular area of your business, whichever area it is in, you need to keep rolling. For example, if you are allocating 4 hours out of your day, say from 10am to 2 pm, for selling and you find yourself making some sales (which is a GOOD thing), than keep selling! You are experiencing what athletes refer to as “the zone.” Often, for the sake of perceived crises in another area, or rigid adherence to a time management program, the new entrepreneur will forsake “the zone.” When you forsake “the zone”, you will lose momentum, and if you lose momentum, you will forsake the big chunks of progress and leaps forward that you need to drive bigger success.
5. Absence of Persistence
This would seem to be pretty obvious, but I can’t count the number of people who give up too soon. When I hear about someone quitting on a project or not wanted to make that extra sales call, I think of the story of the miner on Colorado.
A miner was digging for gold in Colorado. He had dug for three years without striking anything of significance. The miner expressed his frustration to another businessman in the area, who offered to buy the miner’s claim for a paltry sum. The miner agreed, happy to move on to bigger and better things. The businessman quickly commissioned some experts to inspect the claim, and promptly began mining. After only three feet of digging, the largest gold vein in Colorado history was struck. The businessman became wealthy beyond measure. The miner, who had since moved on to farming, would live a life of regret. He would often lament that he was “just three feet short” of a fortune.
Too many people fall “just three feet short” in pursuit of their business goals. Persistence is paramount to success.
