Business Habits: The Secret To Avoiding Business Failure
Written by Bhavesh Naik on May 29, 2010 – 12:02 pm -If you have been in business for some time, you’ve already heard the statistic: the vast majority – 90 to 95% – of the business startups fail in the first five years. Only about 10% make it. But what you probably didn’t know is that of those who do make it, only a very small portion actually end up building the business they set out to build. The rest remain mediocre.
What’s the cause of such high failure? I think it’s because the business habits of our business have not been properly examined and developed. Business habits is the reason why learning the business-building skills intellectually – by reading books, going to a business school or engaging in intellectual debates, for example – do not make us successful in business.
Business Building is a sport. You can’t learn how to play tennis or golf by reading a book, writing a thesis or graduating with Honors after two years of intense studies. The theoretical knowledge is a good start, but to truly master the sport, we need to engage with it emotionally, enjoy it, practice it often, and master it in small incremental steps.
Our subconscious behaviors, habits, to a large extent, define us. Our habits drive our actions. Our actions drive our successes. They also drive our failures. Ultimately, it’s our habits that make us efficient or inefficient, sharp or dull, healthy or unhealthy.
What’s a business but the collective actions of its people? That’s why a business is much defined by the habits of its people. A business can succeed or fail because of its habits. Habits can make a business grow or stagnate. Habits can help it gain market-share or lose it. Habits can make it deliver great customer service or help lose its customers.
If the business habits are good, the results will be good. If the business habits are bad, the results will be bad. If the business habits are great, the results will be great. And if the business habits are terrific, its results will be terrific.
But old habits die hard. And it’s even harder to form new habits. The first step to breaking old habits and building new ones is knowing what those habits should be. We need to know the “best practices” specific to our business that would make it successful. In most cases, we don’t know what best practices our business should be adopting.
In today’s world, success requires that a business continuously reinvent itself. If not, it will be left behind. But it won’t help to go through sudden and abrupt reinventions. The process of reinvention must be gradual, step-by-step and constant.
The best way for a business to deliberately and gradually reinvent itself is by examining and changing its business habits. Do you know what your business habits are? Are they working for you? What are the better business habits for your business? What will you do to continuously reinvent your business?
Learn more about business reinvention. Stop by Bhavesh Naik’s blog where you can find out all about business habits and what it can do for you.
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