Why Another Business Blog?

Obviously there are already way more business blogs on the Internet than a person could ever read, so why would I start another one? Well, here are my reasons:

• Too many small businesses are failing-5 million businesses fail each year in the U.S. This blog is the only source that will present this number and, over time, I will show exactly where this number comes from.

• My heart aches when I go into a new business and quickly realize that it probably will not be there 6 months from now-hopes and dreams shattered. Unnecessarily.

• Over 20 million U.S. businesses (70% of the total) have NO EMPLOYEES-yet, most of the current business web sites and blogs deal with businesses that have employee, IT, management, and growth issues.

• I keep hearing and reading about the many people who want to start a business, but are held back by fear of failure.

• I’m frequently surprised at the naiveté and lack of basic business knowledge shown by many web sites, blog commenters, and business forum participants. I just read that only 2% of online businesses will ever achieve anything worthwhile.

Why is this? Why do so many businesses fail? Why are people afraid to start a business? Why is there such a poor understanding of what makes a business successful? Why…?

I firmly believe it is a lack of knowing and/or applying the very fundamentals that successful businesses are founded on. I also think that much of the current information presented today either ignores the importance of these fundamentals, or glosses over them to get to the “cool” stuff like information technology, corporate culture, diversity, employee issues, motivation, how to become an Internet millionaire, and the like.

For untold numbers of people who would like to start a business, but are afraid of failure, most current business topics only make them more fearful. For the 5 million businesses that fail each year, these topics are of little concern and never addressed their real problems anyway. For the 20.7 million non-employer businesses, most of these subjects are also of little interest. For the remaining employer businesses-many still do not have a grasp of good business fundamentals.

That is why I’m starting this blog. Through decades of experience in multiple industries I have gained a certain amount of fundamental knowledge about starting and running a business (some of that knowledge came from also dealing with failing businesses) and I want to pass on as much of that basic knowledge as possible.

I also know there are a few great resources on other blogs and web sites, as well as off-line, and I want to point readers to these as well. Beyond this, I hope to challenge readers of this blog with topics from the world at large that may have an impact on their business, their families, and their lives.

So, there you have it. I want to present ideas and concepts that can help the small business owner become successful…and if only one person succeeds because of what they read in this blog, the effort will be worth it.

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