47% vs. 53%: 3 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Company’s Chances of Success
47% or 53%. What do those numbers represent? They are the percentages of construction firms that make it in business versus those that don’t. This is better than a one in two chance that your company will fail within four years after your hard work to get it started.
The numbers should be a wake up call for construction industry entrepreneurs, small business owners and independent contractors. In short, these numbers show just how much risk there is in starting a new construction company. For every 100 companies that are started in the construction industry, 53 of those companies fail within the first 4 years.
They are not good odds. At least not for the entrepreneur who is investing their savings and putting their credit at risk to start their company. In fact, if there were odds put on it in Vegas the chances are that most gamblers would place bets against the construction start-up.
What can you do to shift the odds in your favor?
Wow. These odds are not good, at least not if you are the entrepreneur who is putting your personal fortune and credit at risk to start the business. Think about it. You have a one in two chance of failure. Would you put $100,000 on a pure bet with those odds? But this is not a pure bet. This is your business and your and your family’s future. You are betting on yourself that you can see your way to success.
Before you place that bet, there are some things that you can do to shift the odds in your favor and make your chances for success better. By implementing some of these techniques, you can substantially increase your chances of success as you get started in building your business.
- Establish a Definite Major Purpose or Goals
In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill shares with the reader the concept of a Definite Major Purpose. In today’s terms, Hill would have referred to this as your primary goals. This is the primary reason why you are starting your business.
Create SMART goals. Learn how through our free Construct-Ed course on SMART goals. Write down your goals. Recite them daily and commit them to memory. These are the reasons that drive you towards your goals. They will help you get past those periods of adversity in building your business – and their will be periods of adversity.
Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. – Napoleon Hill
- Develop Your Leadership Abilities
Leadership is one of the most important skills that business owners can develop. Many think of leaders as politicians or statesmen. They think of leaders as those who run major Fortune 500 companies. In short, they think of leaders as anyone but themselves.
Everyone is a leader – a leader of at least themselves. As John Maxwell – the world renowned leadership guru put it – leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. Are you influencing someone else in your business? Even if you are an independent contractor working by yourself you still influence your customers. If you have employees, you influence them. You are a leader – and the only way to get better at something is to study and practice it.
- Be a Student of Your Trade
No one knows everything. One of the greatest risks to a business is when the leaders of the business start to think that they know everything.
“I have been in this industry for 20 years! I know everything I need to know.” The moment that someone thinks that they have learned all they need to know their company is automatically put into danger. Learning is a lifetime pursuit. Graduating high school or college is not the end of the line – it is just the beginning.
One of the greatest risks for companies is when the leader of the company assumes they know everything that they need to know. And remember was a.s.s.u.m.e stands for? There are always new and exciting ideas that develop and continue to change the construction industry. New tools. New products. New leadership techniques.
Learning to love learning is a key to success. Without continued growth, the chances for success are greatly diminished.
Closing
You are an entrepreneur. You are considering starting a company or maybe you have a new company that you have just launched. For some, you are managing a mature company but are looking for growth opportunities.
Whatever your current position, you are in an exciting industry and you are building your dream.
