News Video, David Ramsey: Start a Business. (credit, small business, sales)

[John1960]

ABC News

[tortoise]

Interesting video comment about how 9 out of 10 of his ideas were terrible.

Related . . .
"Starting a small business is always risky, and the chance of success is slim. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, roughly 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years." . . source

Telemarketing related TV show . . Pitchmen

[Traderx]

Originally Posted by tortoise

Interesting video comment about how 9 out of 10 of his ideas were terrible.

Related . . .
"Starting a small business is always risky, and the chance of success is slim. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, roughly 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years." . . source

Telemarketing related TV show . . Pitchmen

Obviously you didn't even bother to watch the video the OP posted. There were no ideas given at all just basic info.

So 50% of businesses fail. Whats your point? That no one should start a business? I take that statement to mean 50% succeed.

And what are the reasons for failure as listed by the SBA?
Lack of experience
Insufficient capital (money)
Poor location
Poor inventory management
Over-investment in fixed assets
Poor credit arrangements
Personal use of business funds
Unexpected growth

Other than unexpected growth is there anything on the list that the person running the business cannot control?

Lack of experience-- doh! I suspect lack of experience would lead to failure in just about anything.

Insufficient capital-- doh! again. If you're broke you probably won't make it for two reasons. 1. You're broke 2. Being broke says a lot about you and how you manage your finances.

Poor location-- kind of goes hand-in-hand with #1

You getting the idea?

Yes, starting a business is risky. So is being alive.
I use to give meetings with my sales people and I would ask them if they could honestly say they never let fear stop them from doing what they knew they should do. To a person they would always agree that at least on occassion the fear of failing entered the equation.

My advise to them was that what they should fear most, more than anything else, the thing that should keep them up at night, wasn't the fear of failing or looking stupid or whatever, but the fear of not having the life they want.

It's highly unlikey you will ever have the life you want without taking risks.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Traderx

So 50% of businesses fail. Whats your point? That no one should start a business? I take that statement to mean 50% succeed.

The statistic itself is problematic. How exactly do you measure business failure? The stat can more accurately be stated as "50% of business close or get sold within 5 years". I have no idea why they use the word "fail", when they don't actually measure that. Did the guy that broke even after 3 years of being in business and decided to close up shop to pursue something else "fail"?

What's Behind High Small-Biz Failure Rates?


Anyhow, regarding the video. I really don't follow Dave Ramsey much, but I believe what he says in this video is accurate. The best time to start a business is at the tail end of a recession. Some of your competition is gone, some of it is distressed and the general environment is ripe for change. He could of course be wrong about the timing, if the recession does not end within the next 6 months or so that it would be better to wait a bit.