90% of Small Businesses Fail

The statistics show that 90% of small businesses fail. There are a number of reasons for this but most are summed up by Nikki Durkin when talking about her fashion start-up:

“Looking back, when I started 99dresses fresh out of high school I was very naive and had zero idea what I was doing. In fact, I didn’t even know what a start-up was! I just knew I wanted to solve a problem I personally experienced: having a closet full of clothes but still nothing to wear.

Since then I’ve survived being stabbed in the back by cofounders, investment rounds falling through, massive technology f**kups that brought sales to a halt, visa problems, lack of money, lack of traction, lack of a team, hiring the wrong people, firing people I didn’t want to fire, lack of product-market fit, and everything else in between.

I learned so much, and yet I failed. I won many battles but I lost the war.”

So the basic list:

• Lack of capital
• Lack of management skills
• Lack of true supporters
• Lack of technology implementation
• Lack of HR skills

And I would quickly add, lack of competitive advantage.

Read her full story here, it is a far to familiar tale.