I was speaking to someone at The Business Network recently (a network I have been part of for many years that runs in various spots round the country), who is having a hard time in their business.

Luckily, he has been in business for long enough that he has seen ups and downs, and was quite philosophical about it. And as anyone who has been in business for any length of time knows, things go in cycles.

The thing is – when you are starting a business you maybe don’t know that. And here’s the thing – the majority of start up businesses go bust in the first 12 months. Some figures put it as high as 8 out of 10 companies failing in their first year. And why is that?

Well, there are a number of reasons, but personally, I think the biggest of those is that starting a business is hard work, and most people have no idea how hard and no plan to keep themselves afloat until the business can support them. They go into it with great plans and great financial forecasts, but have no back up plan when those targets are not met.

I had not taken into account that when you run a business you can’t spend all your time selling. You have to also do the book keeping, the marketing, the networking, dealing with suppliers, outsourcers, staff and a myriad of other things that you don’t have to do when you work for someone else.

And unless you know and prepare for that before you start you are likely to think business is all hard work before long.

But it doesn’t need to be like that. If you have a proper foundation of knowledge and experience to build on, and you have realistic plans financially, then running a business is a lot of fun. IF you have a proper foundation.

And that’s why next year, we are launching Magnetic Business – which is everything you need to know to grow your business – whether that is from a standing start, or whether you have been in business a little while and have hit a wall, or a ceiling!! If you have gotten your business to a level and now feel stuck…..if you want to make a change in your business and you are not sure how…then talk to us!

It’s why I created my Mastermind Group. Because you can either figure it all out yourself and make the inevitable and preventable mistakes along the way OR you can build on the experience and knowledge of others, to shortcut your success.

If you want to find out more about the mastermind email me on carole@carolefossey.com

Meanwhile, have a great week, and here’s hoping your week is full of fun and not too much hard work!