The U.S. Small Business Administration says that 50% of small businesses fail within five years — but look on the bright side: your business could be in the 50% that succeed.
I have always wondered where the SBA gets its figures from and how they define the existance of a "small business". During the spring, in my business (we are a printing company) probably half of the people who walk into my shop are wanting to start either sometype of "landscaping" business (usually cutting grass) or pressure washing business. The first place a new business owner heads to is the local print shop to get business cards. They don't realize that it is hard to get customers, they don't have the sales/marketing skills to do it, they don't have the cash or equipment to do it, they don't have the right personallity to succeed in business, it gets friggen HOT in these parts by the end of June, and they don't want to put in the effort that it takes. But it sounded good to them when they concieved the idea and they were excited about it and wanted to get started in a hurry (that explains why they all want their business cards on the spot while they wait even though they haven't even thought up a business name yet).
I rarely get repeat business from them because within a month the vast majority of those people are out of business (although 95+% of my business in terms of dollars invoiced is from repeat customers).
I figure if someone purchases business cards, even if they havent filed any type of paperwork, they still qualify as a business for the few days that they pursue being a business. I would guess that the true 5 year failure rate far exceeds 90%.
A few weeks ago this guy comes in, he wants business cards, I could tell right off that he was a total looser. I get really tired of dealing with these people (business cards are NOT a major profit center for our shop) so I decided to a different tactic with him. I said something to the effect of: "You are not just going to need business cards, you are going to need yardsigns, and vehicle graphics, and invoices, and business checks, and mailers, and fliers, and customer satisfaction questionairs, and a perminant sign, and advertising specialty items, and screen printed or embroidered employee apparal, and employee time cards, and screen printed shirts to give to your customers and venders, and some vinyl lettering on your business vehicles, and a set of removable car magnets for your personal cars." I told him that I could work up a package deal for him on all of that stuff for around $5,000. The guy said he would have to come back later. Naturally I never saw him again.
Had a lady call a while back, she wanted to know how much it cost for 50 business cards. I told her that our minimum was 500. She explained that she did not want to purchase that many because she did not know if the business would be sucessful. I explained that if she didn't think that she could give out 500 business cards that her business would indeed not be sucessful and that she might as well save her money. Needless to say, she didn't place an order.