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Huge Odds Are Against Business Owners

By Will Turner

Did you know that 82% of all independent business start-ups fail? It’s true. Most businesses are doomed to failure before they even open their doors. The sad part is that most entrepreneurs who start businesses are good people with integrity, a strong work ethic and an idea that will help others. So why do they fail? For most of them it’s because they don’t understand selling.

Here’s what typically happens. An entrepreneurial woman opens a business and realizes very quickly she doesn’t have a lot of money to hire people so she does everything herself. She becomes CEO, CFO, Sales Manager and Operations Manager, as well as a few other things. And she’s good at it. The business grows and she decides she needs to hire someone else. Sadly, the first hat she decides to take off is the sales hat. It is usually the one that is the hardest for her to wear, it’s the most work and it’s not the one she has the most experience with. So off she goes to hire a salesperson. After all, you can put salespeople on commission-only. That’s seems like a cheap, low-risk way to get some help, right?

Wrong. The sales hat is one of the last hats most business owners should take off. It’s the hardest one to find someone else to wear, but it’s the most important hat in the business. It’s the only thing that drives revenue into a business. It’s hard to hire good salespeople on a limited budget. The experienced, well-trained ones want big money and the ones who will work cheap often have no idea what they are doing. Does it make sense to trust your income to someone new to your business who is inexperienced in selling?

To make matters worse, most business owners have no idea what they are doing with regards to sales so they make really lousy sales managers. It’s a terrible combination that will more than likely lead to failure. Most small businesses simply don’t have the cash flow and cushion to absorb a dive in sales. The end result shows up in the statistics of failed businesses.

The solution is for the business owner to educate herself in the process of selling. This accomplishes one of two things. Either she will become comfortable in the process herself and keep the sales hat on or she will be better equipped to manage and train the new salesperson she decides to hire. And in the long run, she’ll beat the statistics and live the American dream.

© Dancing Elephants Achievement Group 2003