13 Reasons Why Most Businesses Fail

For any business — online or not — the odds are stacked against success. In fact, sources indicate as many as nine out of 10 businesses fail within five years.

Having the fortune to work with a host of successful businesses — from independent designers to global service providers - you start to recognize winning characteristics.

But what are the treacherous traits that are responsible for the demise of most businesses? Based on an accumulation of notes over the years, following are answers by some of the most renowned business experts of our times.

1. Undefined values

Entrepreneurs need to define their values, which guide all decision making, insists iconic motivational speaker Tony Robbins. If you know what you value most and truly want out of life — be it love, health, success, freedom, power, or comfort - Robbins noted you'll find you can make more effective and rapid decisions. He added: “Your beliefs determine whether or not you feel like you're meeting your values - they can either limit or liberate you.” Where do you start? Ask yourself this question: “What's most important to me in my life?”

2. Business plans don't target a market

The biggest mistake most companies make when writing a business plan is not having a target audience in mind, suggests Michael Miller, author of 75 non-fiction books. Ultimately, he said these businesses end up creating something generic, without a purpose or defined goal. “Looking at it another way,” noted Miller, “if you don't know who your audience is, you really don't know why you're creating a plan — and a plan with no purpose is a plan for failure.”

3. Just dabbling

Learn every detail of your core business because the market only pays excellent rewards for excellent performance, stresses motivational speaker and self-help author Brian Tracy. In contrast, below average performance pays below average rewards, failure and frustration. His advice: “Read all the magazines in your field. Read and study the latest books. Attend the courses and seminars given by experts in your field. Join your trade association, attend every meeting and get involved with the other top people in your field.”

4. Being afraid to lose

Failure inspires winners, and failure defeats losers, wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki. He noted: “The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning; thus, they're not afraid of losing.” Kiyosaki explained there's a big difference between hating losing and being afraid to lose. “The main reason over 90 per cent of the American public struggles financially is because they play not to lose,” he stated. “They don't play to win.”

5. Fear of being judged

The fear of being judged, looking stupid, being wrong, failing or taking blame lurks just beneath the surface in the clever disguise of caution, claims marketing innovator Kay Allison, founder of Energy Infuser. And when you can't put the full force of your enthusiasm and passion behind a new idea, she suggests that idea will be dead on arrival. “One thing I've learned is that whatever I focus on grows,” offered Kay. “So if I focus on the anxiety that gnaws in my belly, it gets so big that it's paralyzing. On the other hand, if I focus on what my next appropriate action should be, it gets me into motion.”

6. Ignoring your gut instinct

Writer Malcolm Gladwell stated in his national best seller, Blink: “…if we are to learn to improve the quality of the decisions we make, we need to accept the mysterious nature of our snap judgments.” He went on to say, “We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that — sometimes — we're better off that way.”

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For any business -- online or not -- the odds are stacked against success. In fact, sources indicate as many as nine out of 10 businesses fail within five years.