Zak Mustapha — November 14, 2019 They say the only way you really fail is when you give up.
True, but that’s not the core reason why they fail.
In my many business failures, the reasons behind every business failure I’ve experienced or witnessed boil down to three.
These aren’t the only reasons businesses fail, but the three main ones you can only blame yourself for… which is why it’ll be hard to swallow for most.
Anyway, let’s begin with the first reason…
Reason #1: You’re Broke
With all the eCommerce and drop shipping courses out there telling people they can start a business with a few hundred bucks – it’s no wonder everyone thinks they can just start a business with their pocket money. I know I did… until you realize you actually need a lot more. But, by then I had already run out of cash and unable to pay for my overheads.
Although it is actually possible to start a business with a small investment, it’s not easy when you don’t have any guidance. Remember that when an expert shows you a testimonial of their successful students… 1) they don’t promise you the same results. 2) they actually joined the expert’s program and took action. They didn’t go at it on their own.
In other words, if you think you can read an article or attend a “taster” webinar and then go at it on your own then good luck to you, because you’re going to need it.
Let’s say you saw a testimonial of somebody who started a successful eCommerce business for $ 500 and then started bringing in monthly profit of $ 5,000 in just 3 months. By setting the same budget as they did you set yourself up to relying on luck. You cannot control results but you can control your own actions.
People who set result-oriented goals will feel disappointed when they don’t achieve the results they aim to achieve. Instead of setting result-oriented goals, set action-oriented goals by defining the actions you want to take every day that will get you closer to succeeding.
Now back to talking about money… if you can’t pay the bills, then get a job or do some freelancing to bring in some income. If you can only pay the bills but don’t have enough cash for a business, then improve your skills so you can get a promotion or charge higher rates. Starting a business is not a solution to your financial problems, it’s the next level up in the financial game. So, start from level 1 – get a job or work for someone.
Like oxygen, businesses need cash to live. Think of cash as oxygen tanks, the more oxygen tanks you have, the deeper and longer you can swim. So, load up on that cash.
Reason #2: You’re Selling to Broke People
Let’s say you’re selling something above the $ 1,000 mark and you’re bringing in a decent amount of traffic, the only problem is no one is buying… hmm… why could that be?
Now there could be many problems such as your offer isn’t enticing enough, you don’t have enough social proof, your copy is bad or you’re bad at closing sales. But more often than not the people you’re selling to are broke.
The younger your target audience the harder on cash they will be and the less you can charge. So, consider targeting more affluent buyers – which is very easy to do with today’s marketing channels.
Sometimes it’s not about improving your product or service, but presenting it in front of the right people. The last thing you want to do is to sell something to people who don’t have money or even worse – don’t want to spend money.
Reason #3: You Don’t Know How to Sell
What’s the first thought you think of when the word “sales” is mentioned to you?
- Sleazy
- Snake oil
- Used car
- Door-to-Door
But here’s the thing, you’ll be broke for the rest of your life guaranteed if you’re bad at selling.
Not learning how to sell because you don’t want to use any “shady” tactics on your prospects is a selfish way of looking at it. Here’s a question… why do you think they clicked on your ad and came to you in the first place?
If you don’t sell them your solution then they’ll walk away with their problem unsolved AND you lose a customer… now that doesn’t help anyone does it?
And if you feel bad about selling your product or service then it means you don’t believe in it yourself.
Remember business is about exchanging value. A customer has a need or problem they want to solve and you have the solution – learn to communicate that value through sales.
Essentially your business failure or success comes down to having money to sustain the business, presenting your solution to people with money and learning how to sell.
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