Poke The Bear

Every work day, 800 Australian businesses cease trading.

Businesses are failing. No one is writing about it.

‘Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.’
Russell Ackoff

The figures I quote below are just Australia. Given that we are 28 million people - you do the maths to scale up or down for your country.

I bet the ratios are pretty much the same.

Sole traders are failing

Here on Substack, we call these guys solopreneurs.

Technically, they’re sole traders or sole proprietors (depends on your country).

In the 2023-2024 financial year, 196,772 Australian sole traders and unincorporated businesses ceased trading.

Crank that figure. It equates to 755 every work day.

I bet the majority of these are people like you and me, having a go at a side hustle to pull in some extra cash.

That’s 755 people who had a dream. People who tried and ultimately found it all too hard, too unprofitable, too complicated, too soul-sucking. For all these reasons and more, they gave up.

And tomorrow? There’s another 755 already queued up. Standing in line.

Companies are failing

We know these as Ltd, Pty Ltd, C-Corp, Pte Ltd, or LLC. Basically, any incorporated organisation.

In the 2023-2024 financial year, 11,049 companies entered external administration for the first time.

That’s 45 companies every work day. These are formal, incorporated companies that for one reason or another, could no longer keep trading.

So riddle me this

We have 800 enterprises, every work day, who no longer participate in the market they were once so excited about.

So excited they traded their time, money and relationships for the chance to make something amazing.

Every work day, their founders and employees reluctantly reenter the job market, a little wiser and (sometimes) a lot poorer.

Okay. That’s not actually true. Some businesses close for other reasons. The natural cessation of a limited-time arrangement. Retirement of the boss. Health. Lifestyle. A better opportunity presents itself.

But mostly, it’s because the business is no longer viable.

When a business becomes non-viable

There are always 6 factors in play:

1. Lack of sales

2. Lack of purpose

3. Lack of preparation

4. Lack of cash

5. Lack of effort

6. Lack of systems.

These 6 factors? Seen ‘em all. More than once.

The good news is that every one is correctable

My job, here on TBS, is to show you how.