90% Of All Start-Up Business Fail In The First 5-Years – Why?
Time to read, just 3 minutes.
What’s In This Month’s Edition?
There is no advertising here.
- This month’s saying or phrase.
- 90% Of All Start-Up Businesses Fail In The First 5 Years – Why?
- Emojis Aren’t Just Cute…They Are Legal.
- You Can Store Firearms But Not Russian Tanks
- Food – Yummy Dumplings.
Saying Of The Month
“Never take advice from someone who has never made mistakes. They’re either liars or are totally lacking in self-awareness.” Donald Cooper. Donald is one of my mentors.
90% Of All Start-Up Businesses Fail In The First 5 Years – Why?
People go into business because they feel they have a great idea so perhaps they can make a business out of it? It is called, ‘an entrepreneurial seizure’. But when a business fails so many people are affected including the loved ones who rely on income to put food on the family table and to pay the mortgage or rent.
Aside from insufficient capital I believe there are 2 major emissions that a budding entrepreneur never considers.
ONE – A business plan: In my previous life I owned a design and build construction business. If you were to come up to me and ask me to build a house the first question I would ask is, “Do you have a plan”? For this example, let’s say you reply with, “No, I have no plan”. I’d say, “Okay, we have a draftswoman employee so she can prepare the plans for you”. My next question will be, “What do you want it to look like when it is finished (your vision)”? Once again, your response is you have no idea. In other words, not only do you not know what you want it to look like but do not know how many bedrooms, garages, or bathrooms you want either. Neither do you know if you want decks or skylights or anything for that matter. Crazy.
You know it makes sense you cannot build a house without a plan so why doesn’t it make sense you cannot build a business without a plan either? Probably because no one said you need one, that is why.
Two – A Coach or Mentor: Sport is business and business is sport. Imagine this (and because we are a rugby mad nation, I will use rugby as an example, but this applies to any and all sport), you are down at the local park on a Saturday morning to watch the kids play footy. But something is missing, they do not have a coach. Kids are running all over the place, do not know what to do, and have no one to give guidance,
directions, or inspiration. Now let’s advance this to the Football Ferns or the All Blacks. Imagine what would have happened if the Football Ferns had no Wayne
Smith, they just turned up with no coach – are you kidding me? Imagine the All Blacks going to France without their coaches – what chance would they have of even winning against Namibia – NONE. They just turned up and said, ‘hey, we are here to win the world cup but don’t need a coach’. Yeah right.
You get the picture? No plan, no coach, no direction, no success. Oh, and by the way if 90% fail what about the remaining 10%? About 5% struggle and just scrape by which does their dead in. they are an over-worked and under-paid mess.
If anyone wants a pattern for a simple business plan come and see me because I can help.
Emojis Aren’t Just Cute…They Are Legal (By/from Donald Cooper)
Firearms
From time to time some of our customers want to store firearms, rocket-propelled grenades, and tanks. Well not rocket-propelled grenades, and tanks but certainly some fancy weapons. Look, here is a Russian tank that they wanted to store at Our
Place because it is nice and secure here and unlikely to be found by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I said No, let them bomb it.
Seriously though, a few years ago, an arms dealer wanted somewhere to store his stuff but first had to get police approval. They came and had a look and were more than satisfied with not just the 24/7 CCTV system and the swipe-card entry and exit system, but
also and particularly the monitored alarms system. We preferred and chose the swipe-card system over using a PIN number at the gate keypad because PIN numbers are too easily given away by dodgy customers to their dodgy mates.
With Swipe-cards we know who comes in, how long they are in for, and when they leave – it’s all recorded in the backup permanent.
Most lockups and all common areas are covered by the Masterton Self-Storage security alarm system. Although nothing is 100% secure it is a bit like having a guard on site every day and every night. That means your insurance company will love it to. Of course, there are strict rules when storing firearms and you must notify police beforehand. Once that is done you should be good to go.
Yummy Dumplings
You can buy these (pork) dumplings from either Moore Wilson’s or Reduced To
Clear – both in Masterton and other places. They are easy and quick to prepare and although they could be included with an evening meal, we usually have them for brunch.
The secret is in the sauce and to get something tasty you will need to play around with it but Jackie Lim (my wife – not related to Nadia Lim but I recon equally as good in the kitchen) will mix up (all ingredients available from Moore Wilson’s or other supermarkets); sweet and sour sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, perhaps some soya sauce, and sometimes you can buy Black Sriracha Sauce which is really nice.
Jackie’s experience means she just uses a small amount of mix and match (no measuring) so for you it will be trial and error to suite your taste buds.
Cooking the dumplings is easy. Use a non-stick fry pan and tip in a small amount of cooking oil. Get the heat up in the pan and simply fry one side. When brown as per the photo get stuck in using the dipping sauce. Yummy.
Hope you enjoyed this letter.
Kind regards from the team (Di, Jackie, and Julian) at Masterton Self-Storage PS: If you find this interesting, amusing, and helpful then forward it to a friend.
Oh PPS: When you use a self-storage facility you are buying a license to use a lockup, space, or room. It is not a rental. To renew your license all you need do is pay for another term, which, after the first month, could be by the week, fortnight, month, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, or 12-month term (and in some cases longer). When you renew your license, it means you agree with all the terms and conditions of the most current MSLL License Agreement (LA) – which is available at the office, or a copy can be emailed to you, or at the website at https://storagemasterton.nz/blog/ – no need to sign a new agreement unless you want or need to. This also means, because it is a license, you are not required to give notice when you are about to vacate for the last time.