Don’t be a Business Killer

I’m going to tell you a real life true-crime story. In this story, the victim is a business, killed by the very entrepreneur that was entrusted to protect it.

Now, like all good true-crime stories, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. But the sad thing is that, in this story, there are no innocents. Only victims. So we’re changing their names to protect against a lawsuit. (As good a reason as any, I suppose.)

I first met –oh, let’s call him Mr. X- in a networking function two years ago. He was, and still is, a nice, great guy, with a broad smile and an enthusiasm for business that is infectious.

We first started talking about his business a few days later, and I was really intrigued by his idea. He was the owner and operator of a great new fitness concept that we will call Fitness Inc.

Fitness Inc is so unique that I can’t even describe it in this blog without identifying the company. Needless to say, it was a great new idea for how to get a workout. And –as I felt at the time- if marketed and positioned properly, could turn the fitness industry upside down.

While Mr. X enjoyed discussing marketing with me, I found him to be resilient towards any outside help. His excuses were ones I’ve heard many times over the years. See if you recognize these as any that you would say:

• There’s no budget for it at this time
• We’ll do it in house
• We don’t think we need it
• We feel our idea is so great, it will market itself

So we parted ways, but I always kept in touch with Mr. X. After all, I had no hard feelings, and I really liked his business idea. A few months later, I followed up with Mr. X again to see how things are going, and I was shocked to learn that Fitness Inc was going out of business. Shocked but not surprised. But what really blew me away was Mr. X’s rational as to why his business went under. Again, see if this sounds familiar to you:

“Times are not conductive to build out our Fitness Inc concept right now.”

As soon as I heard that, I realized I was dealing with business murder. Because this was a business that was allowed to die, not one that deserved to die. I’ve been doing marketing for a number of years now, and in that time, I’ve seen businesses succeed and fail. And in almost every case of business failure I’ve noticed two things: 1) The failures were predictable, and 2) The failures were avoidable. Fitness Inc didn’t have to die. It could be, right now, one of the most talked about new gyms in Canada with franchises in development all over. Even from my initial discussions with Mr. X, it was clear to me that there was a lack of understanding of his market, his marketing strategy and how to connect to potential customers. Not because Mr. X was ignorant, but because he was allowing his love for his own idea get in the way of him seeing the opportunities and threats that lay before him. His business “crimes” included:

• Failure to understand the marketplace
• Failure to know who his idea customer was
• Failure to work to get the message out there
• Investing in locations, equipment, and manpower, before investing in his brand
• Assuming that a great idea was enough

I keep going back to his excuse as to why his business failed: “Times are not conductive to build out our Fitness Inc concept right now.” In that excuse lays the entire classic rational that entrepreneurs use when they screw up. Let’s make one thing clear: rarely, if ever, does a business depend upon the economic, social, or political Zeitgeist of the moment for success or failure. The following is almost always true for 98% of businesses:

• NOW is the right time for you to start a business
• NOW is the right time to connect with your ideal customer
• NOW is the right time for success

Entrepreneurs kill their own businesses by strangling them to death. The do it by restricting outside ideas, opinions, and advice. They do it by assuming they know everything, and that everything can be done “in house”. And worse yet, when their business dies, they take no responsibility in the matter, get a new incorporation number and proceed to kill all over again. I call this serial entrepreneurial murder.

Even the best business people in the world don’t know everything. Don’t assume you do. Listen, learn, ask questions, and hire an expert. There’s no shame in that, and –believe me- there is always a budget for it. You just have to be willing to find it.

Don’t be a business killer. Reach out and ask an expert: a marketer, a lawyer, an accountant –everyone. If not, the next blog post might be about you.



Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca