There are six factors that affect the success or failure of starting a business: entrepreneur's courage, enterprise structure, enterprise strategy, internal and external resources, enterprise operation mode and internal and external incentives, and each factor can be expanded into a big topic. Among these factors, as long as there is a problem, it is doomed to fail, while those who have achieved "success" in the period of abnormal social and economic development are only temporary and exceptional phenomena, and the current superficial prosperity does not represent real success-because according to the discussion of the American management thinker Yitzhak Mattis in "Enterprise Life Cycle", an enterprise can only be successful if it successfully passes through "adolescence" and enters "maturity".
Undoubtedly, the most fundamental reason for entrepreneurial failure is subjective. Because, even if entrepreneurship fails because of environment, industry and other reasons, we should point out rudely that the environment can not be changed by entrepreneurship, but can be analyzed, predicted and selected. If the entry requirements are not available or immature, you can choose to give up or wait. Why rush to "commit suicide"? As for industries, I have said that unexpected events such as "Asian financial crisis" and "9 1 1" have indeed brought fatal blows to some industries, but not all enterprises in the industry have closed down.
Take the six factors mentioned above as examples:
(1) Courage. I met a friend when I was working in a company in Zhejiang, and my boss arranged for him to be my assistant. I learned at work that he and another friend used to be business partners when the boss started his business. The three of them used to spend a lot of time traveling in Daiyue, having a picnic and sleeping, and doing several kinds of business together. As a result, the principal that everyone pieced together was basically eroded. When the current boss found new opportunities from a series of experiences and lessons, the two of them could no longer trust the current boss because they couldn't bear a series of blows, and proposed to quit and help the boss. Under such circumstances, the boss borrowed hundreds of thousands of yuan from relatives to repay the principal of two friends, and at the risk of failure again, hired (and of course relied on) former partners and current employees to work hard in new fields. "Maybe" is because "God rewards diligence" and "people should not be too hasty", and the result is successful-up to now, the annual output value (sales) of this company has exceeded 100 million. The two friends began to get rough. Whether the boss succeeds by courage or not, the failure of these two friends must lie in the word courage.
(2) structure. Three friends opened a clothing trading company somewhere in Zhejiang. Because everyone has the same background and interests, their respective positions and rights are not clearly defined when they are in partnership (although there is a record of "3 13 1" in the company's articles of association, it is only for the needs of company registration). They eat meat and drink in a big bowl and start a business with the money borrowed by * *. At first, I suffered a lot, did some business and accumulated some money. Because no one really invested in the investment at the beginning, and their rights were not clearly defined (note: not rights), so when the interests came, they began to intrigue, and it was difficult for the money behind to come in. The money earned in front was quickly spent and finally disappeared. What is unfair? If we restrict and stipulate the structure from the beginning, the final situation will be different.
(3) strategy. When he was in a company, a friend of mine met him. I was engaged in the most basic technical and engineering installation work in that company at that time. He used to be a boss himself, but he was brilliant for a while. Maybe it was too easy to make money then. Coupled with his diligence and dedication, he soon became rich in crops, and he soon became complacent about the feast and enrichment of his brain. He forgot where he earned the money and ran around. He soon lost his original advantage because of industry changes, so he had to clean up the mess and start his "part-time" career again. So far, he is still worried about his original confusion.
(4) resources. A relative has been running a company for more than ten years, and the company is still on the verge of life and death. Employees who used to struggle together left one by one because they could not be reused and rewarded; Where the customer is, it is "blind bear breaking the stick", making one and throwing one; I enjoy my personal life with the money I earn and invest blindly. I also borrowed all my friends and relatives who could borrow money, leaving me alone in the end. Now there may be the idea of making a comeback and turning over a new leaf, but after all, I am old and have nothing to do.
(5) method. A few years ago, a group of high-spirited intellectuals, optimistic about Zhejiang's enterprise management consulting market, initiated the establishment of a consulting company, which really made a difference in the trend at that time. However, in order to speed up their own occupation of the market and learn from the practices of major international consulting companies, they have adopted a so-called "scientific", "standardized" and "good-looking" management system internally, which will be used in general industrial enterprises to strengthen management.
(6) Incentive mechanism. A high-tech company with foreign investment background in Wuhan has an output value of over 100 million yuan. I learned some details in the communication with the assistant general manager of this company. I thought that as a senior manager, their income and treatment were very good. Only after asking did I know that the so-called "369" (50,000 undergraduate students, 60,000 master students and 90,000 doctor students) is actually not aimed at all employees of the company, but only some relevant personnel can enjoy it. The company adopts the "negotiated salary" system, and one person has the final say in the distribution. As a result, although everyone gets a good treatment, key personnel leave their jobs one after another because of unfair, unreasonable or even negative incentives, the company's business is damaged, and other external factors eventually collapse.
Generally speaking, the failure of some small and medium-sized enterprises is inevitable, because the resources of the whole society are limited. Personally, it can be avoided-only "conscious" enterprises can get rid of the "rule of experience", and "active" success is not just an "accidental" phenomenon. The initiative here is to consciously understand and grasp the law of entrepreneurship, and pay attention to avoid stepping into the "trap" in the process of progress.
In my opinion, to avoid the failure of small and medium-sized enterprises, we should pay attention to the following aspects:
Successful people must have their own characteristics. Not everyone is suitable for starting a business. Practice has proved that successful entrepreneurs need to have certain qualities. The most basic quality requirements include: 1) strong entrepreneurial desire; 2) sufficient wisdom; 3) firm perseverance; 4) Dare to take risks; 5) Decisive; 6) optimism; 7) Justice; 8) tolerance; 9) Pragmatic, and so on.
Related resources must be available. In order, the related resources that entrepreneurship must have include: 1) human resources, reliable ethics, and reliable skills of key employees including entrepreneurs themselves; 2) Capital resources are sufficient to ensure the most basic expenses and risk resistance; 3) Manage resources, so that enterprises can obtain continuous cash flow, which is enough to maintain the balance of funds; 4) Channel resources, upstream and downstream supply channels and good relations formed through development or replication; 5) Information resources are sufficient for enterprises to obtain market, competition, technology and other information, and remain open, and so on.
Avoid the entrepreneurial trap. Pregnancy is prone to abortion due to environmental, financial and human reasons, infancy is prone to premature death due to financial, business and human reasons, toddlers may fall into the trap due to development and expansion, and adolescence may lead to premature death due to blind advance and retreat and arbitrary contraction. Therefore, before an enterprise can gain a foothold, entrepreneurs must draft even a little rough strategic documents to guide practice. It should be noted that everything is "established beforehand and not abolished beforehand."
(4) Maintain entrepreneurial spirit. Only by maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit forever, can the enterprise keep the enterprising state forever. It is not difficult to maintain this spirit during the start-up period, but after the start-up period is basically completed and quickly enters the mature period, aristocratic period and bureaucratic period, it is difficult to continue to have the courage and strength to take risks and innovate during the start-up period.
Winning or losing is a common occurrence in military strategists. Once the venture fails, it will undeniably cause certain psychological trauma to entrepreneurs and become an obstacle to re-efforts. But what is more undeniable is that he has at least gained wisdom that others can't get, and can even make wise inferences about the same situation and be immune to other situations. From this perspective, failure is not a bad thing, and it may become the cornerstone of greater success. Therefore, it is a pity that entrepreneurial losers give up easily.
Learning without thinking is useless. Thinking is not only wisdom itself, but also wisdom. Even animals have conditioned reflex. If an entrepreneurial loser doesn't have the ability to reflect, he shouldn't have stepped into the threshold of entrepreneurship at the beginning, and he doesn't need to learn from it. It is best to leave the lessons to those who need these treasures to learn.
I believe that the vast majority of entrepreneurs will be able to reflect on their past failures, gain or increase their wisdom, and further guide their practice. Fortunately, our society has become more and more tolerant of failure, encouraging people to fall and get up again. Society welcomes such heroes. Moreover, we have also noticed that institutions that focus on entrepreneurship, such as science and technology entrepreneurship, and a large number of people of insight are constantly summing up their understanding of success or failure, and actively guiding, coaching and even participating in those "conscious" entrepreneurs.
Here, it is indispensable that conscious entrepreneurs should arm their minds with modern enterprise management theory and guide practice with human knowledge and wisdom while constantly learning and summarizing their own and others' experiences and lessons.