mybusiness.ie

Every year thousands of Irish people start their own business. Inevitably, some encounter problems, struggle and fail. However, a little attention to the potential pitfalls can help business owners avoid these problems and succeed. Here are five of the most common pitfalls that I have observed working with start-up and early stage businesses and, more importantly, what can be done to avoid them.

Here are 5 ideas for small changes you can make to help your business achieve more this year.

"Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail"

Roy Keane used this old adage in his criticism of the FAI a number of years ago. While not everyone agreed with how Roy reacted, everyone did understand his point: without careful planning a team risks failure, with careful planning a team significantly increases the likelihood of success. So why is a business plan so important and what can you do to prepare one?

A colleague told me about hearing professional golfer Padraig Harrington speak shortly after he had turned professional. Padraig stated that his goal was to be on a winning European Ryder Cup team. An ambitious goal, one for which he received a ripple of polite applause from the audience. But he went on to say that to be on a winning Ryder Cup team, he had to be on a Ryder Cup team….

A famous study of the Harvard MBA class of 1979 found that the three per cent that had written goals and plans in 1979 earned in 1989 ten times as much, on average, as the other 97 per cent put together! A compelling case for setting goals! But just any old goals are not good enough, the best goals are SMART goals.

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” While Shakespeare may have got it right when it comes to romance, this can be very misleading when it comes to business. Getting the business name right, right from the start, can often be the difference between success and failure. Here are some things you should consider before deciding on your business name.