The accountant ran off with the money. The partners you planned on adoring took you to the pit of fire and brimstone. Your company was found liable in a large lawsuit and, come to find out, your house and all your property is subject to the judgment. You can’t sell the business
and the business is heading towards endless tax liabilities plus penalties and interest and future levies on your future income seems forthcoming. The dark hole seems bottomless.
But once it was a bright dream. You went together with the right partners that could each help serve the business’s varied needs. You got all the right advice and followed the “brightest minds.” You followed the advice of your high-rise attorney and set up your LLC to limit your personal liability and to limit the amount of paperwork your were required by law to do. You followed your accountant’s advice and you stayed away from the dangerous edge of tax deductions. But, what you didn’t know is that by following this course, you followed the the road that leads to 84% business failure within the first two years, and 97% failure within the next 3 years. And you are still left wondering, “What could have gone so terribly wrong; I, too, am brilliant– why did I tank?”
It could be from a lot of reasons. We advise new business owners to get sales. Worry about sales, think sales, eat and sleep sales. However, the above scenarios mostly happen to organizations that are successful in sales. There is “meat in the pie” so to speak as the parasites and scavengers descend on a living organization like maggots descend upon carrion. First the parasites weaken the animal, then the hunters bring it down and then the scavengers and maggots eat their fill.
What is really sad is that businesses that have strived successfully for 5 or more years are also susceptible to sudden death syndrome.
Why the h*ell does it have to be so dam**d tough!!
“I just want to sell jewelry,” or “make cupcakes,” or “weld aluminum.”
If all you want to do is make the best widgets in the world. Then go to work for a widget factory and use you best influence with the factory to improve their widgets. Business ownership isn’t for wimps and sissies. If the employee and/or management path just doesn’t lead to the best widgets that can be made and you feel that you are destined to make them–you are welcome to learn here.
Remember, the care and concern over the widget making process is just part of the business. Many widget-makers, before you, once made the world’s best widgets and they are now long gone. Some of them are sorely missed but gone they are.
Don’t leave the business-behind-the business to be learned by someone else while you grind out the details on this year’s latest widget. You will eventually be back in the competitor’s widget factory while your trusted com padre is in the Bahamas living the lifestyle you planned for yourself.