Why Do Businesses Fail?

Why do businesses fail? Today, I'm going to share with you what it takes to succeed in business. This morning I was getting out of my truck and I looked down at the calendar. It was summaries and this day seemed to mean something I couldn't remember. What does today's date mean? It's something special. And then all of a sudden, it hit me Today is the day I shipped off and went to boot camp.

I did the math, and it was 35 years ago. So when you head off to boot camp, it's a huge deal. You're really excited and you're even really nervous about it because you're often going by yourself. And when you're young, you're flying on a plane. You may not have flown on a plane ever. Then I arrived in San Diego, California, and I didn't know a soul.

I meet up with a bunch of guys that met under this sign saying that we're heading to boot camp, and we all had our chest puffed out and we are all proud of where we came from. And we were meeting these guys. Some were from Texas, some were from Ohio and Minnesota and Oregon, literally from all over the United States.

So we get on this bus and we head to boot camp. The next morning, they shave our heads and I'm looking around going, Hey, where's my buddy from Ohio? And I don't recognize anybody. A few weeks later, we're kind of oriented and I start to remember and recognize the people that I'd met that first day over about a three month period.

We come together as a team. We experience the same challenges, the difficult stuff and the fun stuff. And by the end of boot camp, we all come together and we graduate. The next phase is we all just go on to our advanced education. I was a Navy corpsman and so I went to the Naval hospital and took a class on own paramedical and emergency medicine.

I had some bodies that were air traffic controllers, so they took off to get that education. Some became mechanics. Basically, we were all in a position to where we could advance in our naval careers. I can't help but compare this experience to the experience we share as entrepreneurs. At first, it's really exciting and often where we're nervous about this new chapter in our lives, we open our doors and we're meeting new customers.

After a while, we're bringing new team members into the fold. So it's really exciting. And then too often a little time goes by and our businesses become unrecognizable, at least from our vision that we had going into it. Unfortunately, all too often this is the beginning of the end for most small businesses. We have a hard time reorienting ourselves and getting our team in a position where we work together through all the challenges good, bad, indifferent and we have a really hard time getting into a position where we shift so we advance the business forward.

Bottom line, if you stop growing as a business, you start dying as a business. So what does it take to keep growing? It takes strong leadership, leadership that can cast a vision that will move the company forward. It takes a team of people who can not only see the vision, but are willing to work hard to make sure that the vision happens.

It takes great products. These products have to be in demand profitable, and we have to be really good at providing them. It takes clear marketing and solid sales strategies. It takes careful cash flow management and it takes relentless execution of our plans. If you find yourself at a point where you, your team members or your business has just stopped growing.

Schedule a call to talk with me today. And remember, as you grow, your company grows.  Keep growing!