Tao of Business

This small business life is not what it seems. Most folk who are not small business owners think that a small business is merely a little version of a big business. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unfortunately it means that much of the material that is written for small business reflects big business thinking. In fact, it ignores the most important aspect of small business: You, the owner.

A simple example: Money. The myth goes as follows:

• develop a unique business idea;
• draft a business plan;
• visit a bank who will assess your business plan;
• after consideration they give you enough money to start a business;
• you get rich, list your company at some future date, and live happily ever after.

Let's look at the reality:

• develop a unique business idea;
• draft a business plan;
• visit a bank who will ignore your business plan, but will assess how much you are worth;
• they will then give you as much money as you are worth in return for you signing over all your assets;
• you will think it is because they see merit in your business plan;
• your chances of success are more or less as follows:
• • 50% of all start-up businesses fail in the first year;
  • by the fifth year eight out of every 10 start-up businesses will fail;
  • by the end of the first decade, only four of the original hundred start-ups will still be in business;
• and as the business fails the you will transfer all of your accumulated wealth to the bank to pay them back for their "investment" in your business.

If that seems a little cynical, please forgive me. My reality is that I meet hundreds of people in the process of transferring those life assets. I started meeting them after I went down that particular road myself in 1992. It has been a fascinating journey full of insights that don't often make the printed page. As anybody will tell you, there is no money in selling failure.

I have been writing for small business owners since 2000, ever since I spent a very lonely six-month period in Australia. Right now I'm digging out the best articles, most relevant to our current economic situation. I will be posting them frequently.

Regards

Peter Carruthers

• Free Recession Survival Course
• What is a surety
  
  What the words in a surety really mean, and how ABSA, Nedbank, Standard Bank, and FNB know you can't understand what you're signing.
• Why do Small Business Owners get Killed?
  
  Everything I read encourages me to think I am the next Richard Branson. That's not true. A small business is not a littler big business. They're different species.
• Piloting Your Own Business?
  
  Running your own business is like piloting an airplane. Only tougher. But 96% of take-offs crash! We show you how to survive business closure.
• Why CrashProof your Business?
  
  Most small business clsoures lead to bankruptcy/sequestration of the business owner/entrepreneur. We show you how to survive business closure.
• Financing that Big Sale
  
  A look at the pitfalls of getting finance for a sudden big sale, and what to do about it.
• Forced to sign surety
  
  True story of SA business owner forced to sign surety by FNB during recession, instead of refinancing his assets.