If there’s one thing that I have realised in over 30 years of dealing with small business, in particular growing small businesses is that it takes a long time to survive and thrive.
The main rule takeouts:
- 5 years to survive;
- 10 years to thrive; and
- 20 years to be ever alive
If you’ve survived those tricky first five years in business and are still doing well, that’s awesome! The vast majority of new businesses do NOT make it to their 5th Birthday so well done. Now time to move into the next chapter; getting through the next five years for your business and hope to thrive.
That’s right, it generally takes ten years to thrive and then twenty years to be ever alive.
We see a lot of people kicking off new businesses, and as accountants we will see the financial and the tax side of that business, there’s a couple of key things that you need to be aware of.
As a new business owner, it’s an exciting time, jumping in and being eager to get going. However, you need to know that you will be risking some of your hard-earned money to get things off the ground. You’re putting yourselves out there into the world and when you’re going into business, whatever it is, you’re going into a jungle…….that’s right It’s definitely a jungle out there!
If your business is around after three or four years, then you’re surviving and starting to do okay. It’s at this stage that many clients come to us and say, basically, show me the money! (*queue the famous line from Jerry Maguire). Why? Because you’re beginning to get somewhere but all the dough tends to be going in terrible tax, and other parts back into the business. It’s only after five years, that you have survived and most small businesses don’t because it’s a jungle!
It takes ten years to thrive, and again, we’ve seen so many clients that have gone through the first five years and it’s starting to become a way of life for them. By ten years customers trust them and more importantly trust their brand. You can be the best person in the world. But if you haven’t got trust in your brand, you ain’t gonna thrive in that ten year period, so ten years to really thrive!
Finally, if you can get to twenty years, then there’s a very, very good chance that you and your brand particularly your brand, your company will be ever alive. There are some exceptions for example; Kodak which was thrown out by technology and obsolescence, but if you get to twenty years then your brand should be ever alive.
One of my best clients and probably one of the top entrepreneurs in Melbourne, got to about eleven years then sold off his business which was a fantastic decision. This client mentioned to me a couple of years later, “It takes you twenty years to grow a brand, putting in the energy, effort and everything to have for it to succeed and sustain ever alive”.
We hope this helps to inform you a little when starting up your new venture. Remember, five years to survive, ten years to thrive and twenty years to be ever alive. As they say in the classics…….Good Things Take Time.
Should you have any questions about starting up your business, feel free to contact me or one of our friendly team at Paris Financial (03) 8393 1000.
