Small businesses continue to play a vital role in the economy of the United States by producing almost 50% of the private nonfarm GDP. In 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, statistics show that unfortunately, about 40% of these businesses fail in their first year, 50% fail by their fifth and only about 20% of businesses will survive their 10th year in business.
What’s the reasons why so many fail? Could it be lack of capital or financing? Could it be that the business owner surrounded himself with the wrong people or chose the wrong partner? Could it be that they didn’t install and apply the right systems or structure in the business? Or could it be that they simply burned out?
Michael Gerber wrote a great book call “The E-Myth Revisited”. In that book, he described the Technician, the Manager and the Entrepreneur. Most smaller business owners are great technicians, however to succeed they must graduate on to manager then on to entrepreneur to ultimately be successful in business.
Another reason why people fail is they lack the perseverance to get through all they need to get through to succeed. To persevere to profits we must keep on keeping on. Businesses sometimes get fixated on their top line number, how much revenues they are generating. I say who cares, persevering to profits is all about the bottom line, it’s all about what you put in the bank, what you put in your pocket, not necessarily what you put on the scoreboard.
To persevere to profits do you actually have what it takes to persevere through cash flow challenges. Do you have what it takes to persevere in creating the internal culture to attract the right people to create your dream team? Do you have what it takes to persevere in applying the right systems and solutions to run your business synergistically? Do you have what it takes to simply persevere when everything seems to be going against you?
The meaning of Perseverance: steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
In the book “Think and Grow Rich” chapter 8 is Decision – The Mastery of Procrastination. Procrastination is essentially on the opposite end of perseverance. In that chapter, there was a story of how we became a free nation. Born of fifty-six men who signed their name on a document that would mean either freedom or death.
The principles of and leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence was; Desire, Decision, Faith, Courage, Mastermind, Organized Planning and most importantly the Perseverance to keep on in spite of fear and potential death in the cause of creating a free nation.
These are just some of the principles that we must master to create a successful organization. Get clear on your organization’s destination, stay steadfast with your plan, surround yourself with the right mastermind team and you too should be well on your way to persevering to profits.