Interesting thing about life - it's so predictable. As we grow up we each have a range of experiences that we initially think is unique to ourselves - only find out much later that everyone has similar experiences. And the trail has been blazed by many others, and the information is there if we thought to look for it. But we each try and re-invent our own wheel - expending huge amounts of energy and emotion in the process, and often acquiring lifetime scars.

Your business life is no different. In choosing to start out by yourself, you invite a series of experiences. Some of these experiences are wonderful, inspiring and fulfilling - and some of them are terrifying, humbling, and draining - but all them are growth experiences. And unlike puberty, mumps, your voice dropping, and that first heartbreak - most are easily preventable if you know how.

Lets look at a few.

Your business will need more money than you have available.
We accept this as a truism, because it is thrust upon us - but there are a few of us who decide to open businesses that do not need additional funding. Yet as the business grows, our 'advisors' suggest we can grow faster by using the funds of others - such as banks. These same advisors are noticeably absent when this strategy goes awry [see the next paragraph]! Most of us do not go to banking school before going into business - so we approach this borrowing thing like lambs to a slaughter. [Even I - with a full diploma in banking - managed to get financially killed in 1992.] This single issue is the cause of almost all the stress we will ever experience as business owners!

Your bank will bounce a cheque, or decide they don't want your business anymore.
This is never personal, but it often creates intense pressure - both personal and business - and often results in the closure of your business - followed soon after by the closure of your family. I am still not sure what comes first - business problems or marital problems - but I do that they always come close together. And once your bank has bounced a cheque - it is almost impossible to open a new bank account.

One of your bigger clients will close, leaving your large account unpaid.
This is Africa, and this happens more often than you really want to think about. We little okes continually extend our businesses deeply into debt to finance our clients - who continually use the law [or our relationship] to avoid paying us. This event is usually followed by the bank bouncing your cheques, and the closure of your business, etc... Yet we continue to rely on our relationship with said client. For what it's worth - anyone who doesn't pay you is not a client.

One of your staff members will sue you for obscene amounts of money when you ask them to leave.
This usually happens because we're too busy to find out how to hire them correctly, and how to fire them correctly. Unfortunately, being too busy is no excuse when the CCMA asks you to pay your ex staff member 24 months salary - and reinstate the person! This is often followed by cash flow problems, and the bank bouncing your cheques, and etc...

One of staff will 'borrow' money that they are not entitled to.
You will usually find this out when they don't arrive at work for a few days, and your bank calls you to ask about the unauthorised overdraft you unexpectedly have! This is followed by... We are usually so busy that we tend to spray our trust around - and then rush around looking for someone to blame when we get abused.

You will gain, or lose, a partner.
This is often just prior to, or just after, your bank account is cleaned out.

OK, so this article sounds a tad negative, doesn't it? I don't mean it that way. Knowledge is power. But we're usually too busy to acquire that knowledge BEFORE we strike the challenge. That's like trying to ride the Argus with your only cycling experience being 20 minutes each day for a week on an exercise bicycle! You are your business - and the future of your family. Take some time out to get the skills, ideas and strategies - BEFORE you need them. Otherwise it will be too late. As many as 96% of start-up businesses fail in the first 10 years - so maybe we're not doing this entrepreneurial thing right?

I have experienced a dreadful week consulting, meeting with a whole bunch of my heroes going out of business for the reasons outlined in this article. Of course, they're experiencing a much more dreadful time. And that's the intense frustration - these are easy issues to fix - provided that you do so BEFORE you need to. And that's what the CrashProof seminar is all about. So having to help with challenges that shouldn't be happening, when the answers are so readily available, is very frustrating.

There is nothing new under the sun. Not my words, but the words of one of the writers in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. True words.

© Peter Carruthers, www.petesweekly.co.za

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