7 Business Facts You Were Not Taught In School

Statistics show that more than 95% of newly start up businesses close before 10 years. Most of the businesses had enthusiastic leaders with exciting ideas, products and services but still couldn't stand the test of time. Why do history keep repeating itself? Statistics also shows that 1 out of every 10 entrepreneur who ventures into business had a business degree from a business school.

After doing some personal research my self, I have found out that the main cause of this high failure rate for entrepreneurs is as a result of some business facts they didn't obtain in school. These are 7 business facts they were not taught in school.

1.  The Heart Of A Business Is Marketing and Sales

The essence or end point goal of a business is to generate revenue. Cash-flow is essential for the sustainability of any business. No matter how incredible the idea which led to the formation of a business and a mind-blowing product or service that caps-off the idea, if sales isn't made, it will all lead to frustration.

Not marketing your business is like blinking in the dark. No one sees your product therefore no sales finally resulting into no revenue. Without revenue, a business can't be sustained and fore-closure.

2.  Perfection Is Not  A Business Word

There is nothing like a perfect product. There is only a new improved failure after another. Let us take a look at this example. Most of us are familiar with the technology world. Looking at some products manufactured by some tech giants (e.g Apple Incorporated and Samsung).
Each tech company comes-up with a new product then claim how improved the currently released product is. After a while, they release another version of the product then claim their new version is better than their previous version.

Learning from tech companies, we find out that successful businesses don't focus more on their customers than their products. Excellent products doesn't guarantee excellent sales. Perfection is an illusion producers give their customers. As an enterprenuer, your duty is to create a product and continuously improve and update the product while satisfying your customers. 

3. Working Harder Doesn't Guarantee Results

Back when I was younger and in school, I was told this: "if you don't work hard, you will fail". Coming of age and starting my own business, I found-out that saying doesn't apply to business. You don't work hard; you work smart. Hard workers don't get rewards proportional to their effort, but smart workers gets greater rewards greater than their efforts.

The main difference between working hard and working smart is that while working hard, you focus your attention on the volume of work you are doing while smart workers focus on how minimal effort can yield great results

4. Sometimes You Have To Follow Your Instinct

Starting a business is an instinct, you are not sure of the final outcome but still you proceed with the instinct hoping for the best from the business. You reading this post on this blog is an instinct, you saw the link and clicked it hoping to improve your knowledge. Sometimes in business you make some decisions based on a choice you made from you heart. Doors of opportunity don't stay opened forever. You have to take action. Most-times in life, when you are 100% certain you are too late.

5.  You Can't Do It Alone

When I was in school, I had a motto; "me against the world". When I started a business I experienced lot of difficulties due to my motto and eventually changed it to; "my team and I towards a better world".

You can't do it all by yourself, you will wear-out yourself and eventually crumble your business. You need a team. Take a look at the amount of task you perform and then imagine if you had a team, how much better and more efficient the task can be done if the tasks are split to their specifics. If possible, create sub-teams within the team and see how your business will be transformed when there are multiple ideas coming from different people towards one goal.

6.  A's In Business Results To More Work

Can you remember when you were in school, when you had an "A" in a particular course, how you felt relaxed and confident knowing that if you continue to apply the same effort, you will have the same result. This also applies in business but you have to work smarter.
The more successful your business becomes, the smarter you have to work. There is no time for relaxation in a business. You have competitors waiting to take advantage of your business if it slips. There are no consolation prices in business; winner takes all.  

7. Failure Is A Training Ground

Failing in business is not the end of a business. Most successful businesses have previously failed in times past before they finally got their strategy correct. Failure is a training ground; you experiment so many things till you get the right strategy and then continuously review your strategy.

Don't consider you failing as being a failure. Remember that you become what you continuously think about. When you fail, consider it as a lesson in which you are to perform the correction. Look for what went wrong, review and then try it again. People don't celebrate your failure so don't quit and keep moving forward.

After Thoughts

These are the basics facts on business. Running a business requires more than that. You will need more skills and knowledge to successfully run a business. 

Your Turn.

Share some facts you learnt while running your business with us. Leave them in the comment section below. We love hearing from you.