I cannot believe it has been a whole month since I last posted on our blog. Holy smokes time flies by…
It is now August and fall is just around the corner. Yikes!!! We have been busy all summer with new clients and also compiling data for upcoming seminars that we want to launch in the fall. We are aiming for September so do not have much time to gather. Our knowledge base is extensive, however, we do not want to glaze over eyes, so we need to fine tune what we have in the coffers.
The theme for our seminars is the title of this blog…”Who is on your Small Business Team?”. Statistically speaking…about 50% or more of new start ups will fail within the first 5 years. To substantiate this statement we have included an excerpt from CBC News, issued in September of 2012:
“The growth in self-employment will be faster in the next decade than any other decade and many of the new start-ups will fail. It is predicted that half will fail within five years. Demographic trends suggests that the country can support about 150,000 net new business — accounting for those that fall by the wayside — in the coming 10 years. The new entrepreneurs also tend to be predominantly male, accounting for almost 70 per cent of all start-ups, although female-led start-ups tend to stay in business longer on average. Older Canadians are more likely to start their own firms because they tend to have the work experience necessary, have made useful contacts during the work lives, and are more likely to have the financial means to do so. Add to that a new generation of Canadians that are much more cynical about corporate culture, about pensions, and are more self-reliant. Canadians who have started new businesses in the past two years are generally more educated than the average in the population, and more educated than previous entrepreneurs. By sectors, the number of individuals starting businesses in the educational services field has risen by 65 per cent since 2007, the fastest growth of any, followed by a 20 per cent increase in health care. Proportionally, British Columbia leads the country with start-ups representing 3.9 per cent of the employed population.”
This excerpt from the article “Record number of Canadians starting own businesses.” in September of 2012 is one of the reasons we want to get the “word out” to small business here in BC, since we are the leader, in the country, for Small Business start-ups and they employ 3.9 percent of the employed population! That is pretty large.
I would like to add one more informational article from CBC on Canadian Small Business and the “expert” opinions expressed about how to succeed.
Mark Drager believes one thing matters more than everything else “Generating sales,” says the 28-year-old owner of in Markham Ontario, is the key to success. A CEO’s number one job is building a sales engine and only that.
“Sure sales are important”, said the interviewer, “But the CEO also has to make sure the company is delivering a great product or service once the sale is made, don’t you agree?” “Of course,” he replied. “But you hire people to do that. You worry about sales first, and then deliver a really high quality product. Sales give you the revenue and the ability to hire the best people.”
WOW…REALLY… My interpretation of this article may not be the way it was initially intended…at least I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. However, the way I am interpreting this article leaves me with a huge question: You have now talked people into buying from you, but you currently have NO quality product/service to deliver to them because you were busy getting “sales” and now you have to “hire people”. That eats up a lot of time getting the “right” people to deliver your quality product/service included with “guarantees/warranties”. What happened to the simple stuff of “supply and demand”? If your supply does NOT meet your demand…you will soon be out of business!!! This is a proven fact that is as ancient as bookkeeping.
I think you all know where I am headed with this one so I don’t need to go on. This is fascinating stuff and, according to the article, this young entrepreneur got his idea from the Dragon’s Den.