What are the ways to avoid failing in your business?
So in this video I'm going to share with you
some of the tips that you you can use to avoid failure.
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Hey guys, so for those of you who don't know me,
it's Linh Podetti here, I'm here to help you achieve time
and financial freedom.
And today I'm actually in my hotel room
in Toronto, so shooting this video right here in Canada.
Okay so before I share with you some tips
on how to avoid failing, how about I share with you
some statistics about how many businesses actually fail.
So studies have shown that 20% of businesses fail
in their first year.
Now out of those that succeeded,
30% of them will fail in the second year.
And from those remainder, 50% will fail
in the 5th year.
And as much as 70% of anyone who's left standing
fail in the 10th year.
So it really looks like it's about 8% chance of success
if you're starting in business,
it is 8% chance of you actually lasting for 10 years.
So why do businesses fail?
Now I did a bit of research and some of the numbers show
that about 42% of businesses fail
because there's no market need for the product or services.
And about 29% fail because of cash flow issues.
And 23% of businesses fail
because they didn't have the right team.
But there many other reasons why businesses fail,
it could be a wrong business model,
you might be ignoring
your actual customer's needs and wants,
and you just don't have enough of a good product offering.
So therefore it's really important
to not just come up with an idea
and then just go out to market
and expecting that everyone will want your product
and spending all this money on your website
and logos and business cards,
when there isn't even a market need for your product.
So let me share with you some examples of what I did.
Back in the day I started a few businesses,
I started a nail polish brand,
that was one of my first registered business
where I started a nail polish brand,
thinking that every girl in the world
is gonna wear nail polish and if I could sell it for $10
and even just sell it to 100 000 people,
then I would make a million dollars,
but it wasn't as easy as that,
because I didn't really create a product
that was good enough, that was any different
to what the marketplace already has.
Then some other business ideas I did
was I created a blog site
where I got someone to write up meanings
to world famous quotes,
and thinking that I could money from Google Ad Sense,
and I even did a phone number trading site,
where you can actually buy and sell mobile phone numbers.
So it really took a lot of testing and trying
out all those business ideas that I have
and failing that I'm able to actually sit here today
and share with you how to actually avoid failing,
because ideas don't just succeed from day one,
there are so many business ideas that I tried
and I basically just closed it down.
I didn't just go registering all these businesses
but I did come out launching these businesses
and spending money on it,
and I want you to avoid spending money on
these businesses that won't work.
And so let me share with you some of the reasons
of some of the ideas I have for you
to avoid failing.
So if I was to ask myself, what are the three tips
I would give to my old self?
Or if was to start a business again,
what would I give to myself?
Or what would I give to you guys
if you're starting a business?
Or is in the middle of a business
and feeling stuck.
So the first thing I would say, most importantly,
is really do something around your passion.
The reason why a lot of businesses fail
is that because you don't have the passion
for what you started,
you might have started on something
because you thought
you could make money from it,
and because you don't have the passion and love for it,
you end up giving up,
you end up not really pushing yourself
to think of innovative ways to come up with new ideas
or innovations.
So like my nail polish business,
I started it because I thought I could make money from it.
Did I have any passion for wearing nail polish
or interest in the beauty industry?
No, it really dreaded me having to wake up
and set a good example by painting my nails
with my own products, and so I realized
that I was actually getting more stressed out
and depressed when I woke up,
business wasn't fun for me,
and because I wasn't interested in it,
I couldn't really think of innovative ways to make my brand
or my product any different to anyone else.
And also, I just gave up, after one year
I just knew that I had to do something else,
I gave up.
And the thing that I've learned about business
is that you really need to have a passion
because you're gonna face challenges,
there are gonna be so many challenges,
in the first year, second year, third year,
even ten years later, you'll still get challenges,
but it takes that love and passion
for your business idea or industry that you push through it
and you just go,
"I can't think of anything else to do but this."
Now the second tip that I have for you
is make sure that you're actually solving a problem
in the marketplace.
Let's just give you an example,
you might like cleaning cars
and you're passionate about cars
and so you say,
"I'm gonna go out there
and start doing a car washing business."
You don't just go out there doing that
because there's a high chance of you failing
because you're nothing different
to other car washes out there,
'cause there are so many out there.
But you really need to look out in the market
and research on,
okay, what are everyone else doing right now?
What are all the competitors doing?
Then what are the missing gaps that customers feel
that they're not getting?
So usually they get their car washed liked this
but what customers really want is a car wash
that has a restaurant in it or whatever, I don't know,
you just need to really research on the problem
that customers are having,
the market's having because there's no one else doing it,
and how can you be different?
So then you come out with a really different kind of product
or packages, rather than just coming out there,
pushing your idea onto the market,
it's you solving a problem.
So the businesses that I've succeeded in
are because of that.
So my first agency that I registered
in developmental business
was because I end up getting a customer,
solving their problem, and making money from it,
and then I realize, "Oh my god, I actually have a business."
So to give you an example,
after I didn't want to do my nail polish business anymore,
and I was going out there, meeting people,
networking, and I came across business owners
that said, "Hey, I need to do a website,
and I need to get all this marketing done,
I don't have time to do it,"
and I told them about the outsource option,
going out there to outsourcing websites and finding people,
and they said, "Yeah, I like that it's affordable,
I like that you can do these services,
I don't have the time."
And so I said, "Okay, I'll do it for you,"
and so I ended up getting a customer
to buy a service that they felt they need,
they wanted someone to do it because they don't have time,
the like the outsourcing model because it's cheaper for them
and they trusted me.
So I basically then had some customers in
before I actually even got a website or a business name in.
So as you can see, I'm actually solving a problem
for the market.
Whereas other people would go,
"I'm a good logo designer, I'm just gonna there
and create logos for people,"
and then they'll find themselves really stuck with
how to actually be different in the marketplace.
So I encourage you to really look into
whatever you're doing right now,
and if you've already started something,
now it's not too late,
it's about now researching
how can you be different by solving a problem?
And if you haven't started anything,
don't just start on anything that you think will make money,
really start in solving a problem.
Like I said, I'm repeating myself,
but you really need to solve problems
in order to succeed in your business.
And the final tip that really helped me succeed
and helped to me to not fail,
is the fact that I had a great business model.
A business model where you could make recurring income.
So although I succeed in my business where I had an agency
doing website development
and logo design and things like that,
the business was very stressful for me.
So I was always trying to go out there,
getting new clients, and giving them that work,
and the thing is
they don't need a website every single month,
they just need one website for a year or two years or more.
And as I was pushing myself,
trying to get more new clients in,
and I just couldn't get them coming back in for more.
I know there are services like SEO and AdWords
and stuff that you can do
in the agency side that is recurring,
but that's exactly what I'm trying to get at.
You really need to think of a service
and make sure that it's recurring.
And so my current Outsourcing Angel business has succeeded
because it's a business
where I help not just recruit the VAs
for the client and charging them a fee to recruit,
I looked at it more as, no, this is a recurring service
where you get us to hire your VA,
but then we'll help you work with the VA,
we'll provide all the support for the VA,
we'll do payroll, and manage the payment on behalf of you,
so there's this ongoing need that you want from us,
and so there is that ongoing relationship.
So once we get in a client,
we put all this money in ads and marketing,
we get a client in,
that client actually stays with us for years,
and so it's just less stress.
So you know that once you get in someone,
you can really enjoy the reward for a longer time.
Whereas if you get into a business
that you're selling something that is just a once off,
it's just more pressure to get in more clients,
'cause we know that it costs a lot of time and money
to actually get in new customers.
So those are the three tips that I have for you to really
make you less chance of failing,
but there are still so many things
that you need to learn in business,
and so I guess my last recommendation
for you is constantly read
whatever you're missing in your business, you need to read,
and you also need to learn from mentors.
So pay for information, pay for someone to coach you,
because whatever I'm missing, if I feel like I'm missing
in the area of leadership, I read about leadership.
If I'm missing in the area of learning about finance,
I had to get over my fear of numbers
and learn about finance and get better at it,
but then I still also paid
for the expertise from those people,
but you still need to know overall,
what the hell you're doing,
because you can't just pay for people
and not really know what you're paying for,
so it's always good to have an overview knowledge
of the area that you're in.
So I hope that you've enjoyed my tips
and if you've got any questions for me,
feel free to comment in the comments below.
But my question for you is,
if you haven't started a business,
what are you afraid of?
What is your number one fear?
And if you've already started a business,
what is your current challenge?
Share in the comments below,
because I could then make a video about that
and help you guys.
So thank you so much for watching
and please don't forget to subscribe to my channel,
because every single week
I share a video like this with you.
Bye.
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