Business Growth Strategies: 10 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Struggle and Fail! by Toyin Umesiri – Nazaru CEO

“Passion is not a substitute for Skills, Knowledge, Expertise and Experience”

If we were to conduct an autopsy on every single business that failed, what would we find? Was it bad leadership? A lack of market intelligence? Poor skills or a combination of many things that went bad very quickly? We will not find many entrepreneurs ready to admit why they think they failed and also willing to confront the fact that maybe their own failure could have been averted and was self-inflicted.

Entrepreneurship must be approached and treated as any other profession. If you wanted to become a doctor you are expected to invest years to prepare, commit to the profession and also focus on acquiring the knowledge, skills and experience you would need to perform the duties of a doctor. Same is true for a Lawyer and Accountant etc. It is only in Entrepreneurship that we rush in with little to no preparations and you expect that you will figure it out with little to no guidance, support, counseling or coaching.

I train entrepreneurs here in the U.S. and Internationally in my Academy. From experience, below are top 10 reasons Entrepreneurs struggle.

When these are not addressed in time they ultimately lead to massive failure… This is why I always encourage Entrepreneurs to “learn fast” instead of “fail fast” because with adequate training you will most definitely position yourself to succeed in Business!

1. They continue to adopt employee mindset and fail to transition successfully to the employer/entrepreneur mindset! Most people in the world have been conditioned and trained to function as employees. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must commit to transforming the way you naturally think, speak and do your work 100%. The Game Plan: Strategies for Winning in Life and Business is the Success Coaching program that will help you to complete your transformation. Mindset is perhaps the biggest issue I have found. The level of awareness of an entrepreneur is a great predictor for success. Cluelessness and a blindness to reality is a sure recipe for disaster. When we only live in our designed fantasy world reality eventually strikes. My book is crafted and centered around addressing both the negative mindsets to avoid and the positive ones an entrepreneur would need to embrace for success.
2. They adopt consumer versus a producer mindset. Successful Entrepreneurs are solution providers and those that only “whine”/complain about problems without focusing on solving them will struggle. You must master how to remove barriers to building, growing and scaling your business – it is your full-time job!
3. Poor strategies – Strategy is important in business because there are proven and efficient ways of achieving results and if you do not know what those are the results you get are reduced. To design the right strategies and tactics for your business a certain level of skill and experience is required. I often compare a building plan to a business plan – just imagine handing over the best architectural drawing to a contractor who has never built a building before… yes that is how I want people to now realize that your business plan is great but you need skills to bring it to reality.
4. Lack of knowledge– those who do not pursue knowledge would continue to remain in ignorance. Ignorance leads to making lots of assumptions. Assumptions would be proven mostly wrong when you arrive in the realities of the market place.Understanding the market you wish to serve, the needs of your customers and clients, marketing and sales strategy as well as business model engineering and value proposition design will go a long way in preparing entrepreneurs for success.
5. Lack of Skills – If you do not develop skills, you cannot do the work at hand efficiently. Mastering skills for success is critical to succeeding in business
6. Lack of Network – We do business with people we know like and trust. If you do not network your way to success, you will remain isolated from success.
7. Wrong Community, Network and Lack of “Community Support” – you need to belong to healthy communities to build a healthy business. Those you serve must see your business in positive light for your business to expand and thrive.- Entrepreneurs would be better served if they immersed themselves in the right community that would support their mission. Entrepreneurs need to spend time with other entrepreneurs. Spending too much time in the wrong communities will only slow you down and could even deflate all that you are trying to do. Build a community for yourself of people who believe in you and your work and also wish you success!
8. Lack of Patience– It takes time to grow and establish a new business. How long would it take for you? The factors are complex. Everyone underestimates how long it takes to pull off everything we say we want to accomplish. Dreamers must soon confront market realities. Just know that it will take longer than you think. There are strategies you can apply to shorten the time frame and blitz scale but without these set of unique skills be ready to ride the uncertainty of the market wave and also spend marketing dollars to educate your customers about your new innovation, services or product.
9. Lack of Consistency – If you are not ready to go all the way you will give up sooner than is required to achieve your breakthrough results
10. They do not seek help and support – Many have done what you are trying to do and they hold the type of information that would save you time, energy and resources. Most failure can be avoided or reduced when expert knowledge are deployed.

The pain and failure entrepreneurs experience could be reduced or even totally prevented with proper preparations and study. It is why incubation hubs work for startups. It is also why “second time” or “third time” entrepreneurs perform better than first timers because they have learnt many lessons from their first attempt that they can now apply. It is why many people say you should “fail fast” but I say why fail when you can invest time in learning before you begin?

“Entrepreneurship must be approached and treated as any other profession”

We all must become students of Entrepreneurship because if we pay close attention Entrepreneurship teaches us about ourselves, about others and about the world we hope to serve. In reality your very first attempt is a lesson and you are actually learning on the job. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not a fluke. Luck plays little because without the right level of preparations, tenacity, intellectual rigor, financial support etc. businesses die and ideas fail.And this is this is why you must continue to train yourself for success!

Toyin Umesiri is the Author of “Mindset of an Entrepreneur: Strategies, Skills and Mindset for Achieving Business Growth and Success“. She is an International Trade Consultant, Supply Chain Strategist, Founder and CEO of Nazaru and Convener of the acclaimed Trade with Africa Business Summit. She provides Business Coaching to Entrepreneurs and Advisory Services to Government Agencies and Multilateral Institutions. Visit www.toyinumesiri.com for more information and support.