The Real Stats On Start-Ups

The Internet has made so many things simpler. With people now able to connect all over the world, online industries are quickly replacing brick and mortar stores. We don’t need to look any further than the decline of of major book-selling chains like Borders to confirm this. Thanks to e-books being sold and downloaded digitally, physical books are quickly becoming a rarity.

The rise of technology has also provided vast opportunities for entrepreneurs to start their own business. Once, the most experience children could get in sales was from selling lemonade on the sidewalk on a hot summer day. Now, young people can sell things on websites such as eBay and Etsy. Craft makers who once either made things for pleasure or to sell at local flea markets now have a worldwide market at their fingertips.

The internet has made it possible for the average person to turn into a business owner. They have access to a tool which connects them to potential clients over the world, a much larger network than is possible in physical shops.

But what are the odds of such a business excelling? You hear all the time of people starting companies in basements and garages and then catapulting to success, but the reality is that most entrepreneurs will not become the next Steve Jobs. So is starting a company worth the risk?

Statistics show that nine out of ten startups will fail. Only ten percent will achieve some sort of level of success. While that may sound daunting, it’s also important to keep in mind that thanks to technology, start up costs aren’t as prohibitive as they once were. Most businesses won’t need to start with a physical building.

The good news is that the longer your company survives, the more likely it is to succeed. A quarter of new businesses fail within the first year, and fifty percent fail within the fifth. By the time you make it to the fifth year, there’s only a ten percent of failure within the following year.

For failed business founders, there’s still hope. Entrepreneurs who fail at launching their first businesses have a twenty percent chance of succeeding in the next one. Learning what not to do when starting a company helps prepare for the future.

If you want to improve your chances of success, bring on a business partner. Two founders of a company help bring in more investment capital and grow client lists more quickly. But be careful of moving too quickly—scaling too fast and too soon is the primary reason most startups fail. Starting a company requires patience.

There’s no doubt that starting a new business can be tricky, but it can also be a rewarding venture. Rather than being daunted by the statistics, use them to your advantage. Launching a company can be risky, so don’t sink all of your money into it. Start slowly and build up. Do your research and invest in good, trustworthy people to help build your team. The most important things to launching a business are hard work and patience!