Why Most New Businesses Fail and How to Prevent it

The latest statistics from the Small Business Administration (SBA) show that “two-thirds of new employer establishments survive the first two years, and 44 percent survive at least four years.”

For new business owners, this statistic can be discouraging but let’s dissect this phenomenon and use it to help beginning entrepreneurs to improve their chances of success.

There are certain key factors that, regardless of the type of business, are reasons that small businesses fail. We will list 5 such reasons and then for each reason we will reverse-analyze to see how a GOOD website can help the business.

1. Lack of experience
Insufficient experience is one of the most common reasons why many new businesses fail. This often derives from inadequate planning prior to business establishment and relates to experience in business functionality, finance and taxes, marketing and advertising, and business-specific details.
HAVING A WEBSITE: A website is a great way to get your feet wet before deeply jumping into your business. Although you may not make as many sales or fully function as a running business with just a website, a website WILL allow you to start slow and test your comfort level. We also often structure our client’s websites to incorporate tools in the backend that allow for automated billing and tax processing, marketing, etc. These tools can do much of the work for a business owner as well as teach how to. Websites can also be quickly modified, fast changing and real-time.

Additionally, your website can turn you into a leader regardless of your experience. You may have heard the expression that ‘Content is King’. Well, if your site contains unique and interesting content or even forums, you will quickly gather followers and the potential to grow your knowledge and experience.

2. Insufficient capital
A fatal mistake for many failed businesses is not having enough operating funds. Business owners often have unrealistic expectations of incoming revenues and how much money is needed to operate the business.
HAVING A WEBSITE: Always be cautious and start slow. To avoid getting in too deep and too fast, a functioning website can be a more modest way to start operating your business, as indicated above in #1. A website also allows you to test new products or expand on an old one without the need of expensive overhead and capital.

3. Location, Location, Location
Location is vital to the success of your business. A poor business location for your niche customers is a major reason why businesses fail prematurely.
HAVING A WEBSITE: A website has no geographic limitation and allows you to delve into any desired location with the proper marketing strategy. Set up a virtual storefront online for a wide geographical range of traffic.

A website opens up the regional market easily. The right keywords expand your reach exponentially. A website affords you the opportunity to each to any location and expand your clientele.

You can expose yourself to a local market, a national audience, international markets, there is no limit. Your website can also easily accommodate different geographic locations with their appropriate language, currencies, taxes, fees, etc.

4. Competition
When you choose a business format and niche, it is important to analyze the need for this business in your community. Not staying ahead of competition is another reason why businesses fail.

HAVING A WEBSITE: Investing in the development of a website is one of the best, most cost-effective way to surpass your competition. Said otherwise, not having a website is the best way to count yourself out of the running before the race has even begun. From an approximate 45 million online business searches per day, you’ll be missing in action if you don’t have a website and competitor will be the one that is found instead. The local market can also be obtained fairly simply by mentioning your website in a local advertisement 

Once your site is up, you should use branding tools, newsletters and many other possibilities to make your consumers feel good about you and your services. This will help you better yourself from your competitors. Your website will also allow you to stay ahead of trends, be loyal to your audience, and much more so that you beat your competition.

5. Not enough Leads / Sales 
If you build it, they will come, right? Well it’s not always that easy. Your company leads/sales/revenue is your company’s blood and is the reason last reason why businesses fail. Five out of ten times why a business will not survive the first 5 years.
HAVING A WEBSITE: Needless to say, a website will help you sell. Your website improves your opportunity to sell your products, services, organization or events. A website also allows you to do online advertisement and marketing. In addition, and a very important point, your website also has the very powerful ability to handle leads and analyze traffic in ways that you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. A separate post will soon be added specifically on Lead Generation and Traffic Analytics.

Simply put, if you have a business today, you need a website. Period.

In the U.S. alone, the number of internet users were about 70% of the population and e-commerce sales were about 20% billion in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.

Just having a website though will not necessarily help you as a business owner. The website needs to have hundreds of parameters working for it to successfully achieve your commerce success. Ensure that your website is professional looking and well-designed and that it is equipped for SEO and for sale-making purposes.

Give BBEX a call for a FREE consultation and to find out more about how you jumpstart your online sales and stop losing business to your competitors in some easy steps.