Avoid These Things That Could Cause Your Business to Fail Before You Can Scale

Most of us go into business and consider that failure isn’t even an option. When we’ve poured our life savings into our venture, given up our full time job and pour our every passion into it, it just has to work… right? None of us like the idea of working hard on a project and it not taking off, but knowing what some potential failures and pitfalls can be can help you to avoid them. Sometimes, business failure will be out of your control- take the recession for example and all of the companies that went under as a result of the economy. But with lots of other things, there’s plenty you can do to protect yourself and prevent the same mistakes from happening as businesses before you. Here are some ideas.

Marketing

It’s easy to think that just because you have a website or physical shop selling great products that you’ll launch your brand and the custom will come flooding in. Plenty of naive entrepreneurs have made this mistake, you need to know that marketing isn’t optional- it’s crucial. This day in age, there’s much more to it than putting up a few posters or handing out flyers. Digital marketing techniques can help you to connect with the people who will be interested in your business, who are searching for products like yours. Employ a marketing team, or outsource to an experienced, third party company. Without it, you simply won’t get enough people through the doors (digital or physical) and you won’t make enough profit to sustain yourself.

Accident and injury

If someone had an accident or is injured as a result of your business, it could be seriously bad news for you. It could be as a result of your products, or advice you’ve given. It could be a result of one of your employees falling over at work, or even someone slipping on snow outside of your premises. Be sure to implement things like guard rail systems where they’re needed, wet floor signs and caution labels on things that need them. You need the right insurances in place to cover you if the worst were to happen. If a case is made against you and is won, without insurance you’d need to pay out of your own pocket. This could mean going bankrupt and having to close completely.

Finances

Speaking of finances, naive new entrepreneurs often make mistakes when it comes to money. From poor budgeting and overspending to personal debt catching up with them and not managing their tax properly, there are lots of errors that can be made here which can be fatal for your company. Get yourself a good accountant, and software which can manage the daily runnings of your business.

No one wants to start a business that fails over something silly or avoidable. Beware of common pitfalls, and arm yourself with the knowledge you need to prevent these mistakes.

This is a contributed post.