Kill Your Business in 7 Easy Steps

Photo by imustbedead : https://www.pexels.com/photo/burning-building-at-night-10874696/

Introduction

Businesses generally don’t need your help to die. This is why about half of all new businesses fail in their fifth year, and roughly 80% die before 10 years.

However, if for some reason, you decide that you would like to kill your business faster, here are 7 things you can do.

Start without a Vision

Every successful business starts with a “why” — a strong reason it needs to exist. However, since you don’t need your business to succeed, having no vision is a great way to start (or end).

Here are great reasons why you shouldn’t have a solid mission and vision statement.

1. A solid mission and vision are essential to building a sustainable business strategy.
2. Your mission and vision can enable you to find your unique selling point or X-factor.
3. A solid mission and vision are also essential for building your business's structure.

Since none of these are desirable for the speedy death of your business, you should definitely start without this.

Pretend to carry out market research.

Lack of proper market research is critical to killing your business before it begins. While a more serious entrepreneur would diligently find out:

1. If there is a market for their product or service
2. The size of the market
3. How much competition is in that industry
4. How financially intensive the industry is
5. Their potential customers
6. Their unique service proposition
7. Changes that are affecting/threaten to affect the market
8. Their strengths and weaknesses etc,

you don’t need to do any of that. Just make up all the market research in your head and anticipate the worst.

You also definitely don’t need our SWOT and PESTLE analysis templates which could guide you in carrying out solid business and market analysis

Don’t download the template here

Have a Faulty Business Plans/Model

A lack of understanding of the market and your place in it will severely hamper your ability to build a thriving business. This shouldn’t really concern you.

However, if you were forced to apply for a grant, meet investors, or by some stroke of bad luck — happened to guess the right elements in your business research, nothing shows how willing you are to kill your business than creating a faulty business model.

1. Plan to market your products and services in the channels you know your customers aren’t in
2. Set your pricing too high or too low.
3. Find strategic partners who will delay the supply chain, provide substandard services, or better still, do both.
4. You should definitely not download our free step-by-step guide to creating a Business Model Canvas

At this point, it will be best if you just quit, but if you want points for looking like you tried actually running a business, the next point is for you.

Create Inefficient Structure

Nothing kills an established business faster than an ineffective structure. For your business to run properly it needs carefully tuned systems to ensure the smooth running of day-to-day activities.

So, for your business to collapse successfully, you need to avoid:

1. Hiring people who will fit your company‘s culture (or lack thereof) and know what they are doing.
2. Creating standardized processes for carrying out frequent tasks
3. Regularly reviewing and optimising your business structure and processes.

Poor Finance Management

Contrary to popular opinion, businesses don’t run on dreams. They run on money and solid strategy execution.

As such, cash flow is the lifeblood of businesses. Your business can survive if it doesn’t turn a profit as long as a steady stream of money keeps coming in. This means that if you want to kill your business, don’t make any money.

If you somehow find that hard to do, then

1. Try mixing your personal and business finances.
2. Don’t get a business accounts
3. Don’t keep proper accounting records
4. Don’t make responsible financial decisions i.e insuring critical business infrastructure.

Don’t innovate

Innovation is for foolish businesses that want to thrive. The business landscape is always shifting. Amazing leaps in technology, sociopolitical and economic changes can change market conditions can change in an instant.

This affords you the opportunity either fail to notice the changes in the market or decide to not adapt to the changes that concern you.

If you doubt this step, ask Nokia and Kodak how their businesses are doing.

Scale Too Fast

This last step is for those whose businesses were doing good and saw the light too late, because, if you had followed my previous advice, your business shouldn’t still be standing.

At this stage, you need to expand aggressively.

1. Enter multiple new markets at the same time (extra points if you pretend to carry out market research).
2. Hire more staff than you need.
3. Invest aggressively in more, infrastructure than you need.
4. Make unsustainable “big” moves

Scaling too fast ensure will ensure that your business will fall under its own weight. Many great businesses have fallen due to this, and I am certain that yours won’t be any different.

In the end, many entrepreneurs want to succeed. if you fall into this category, then don’t follow my advice. In fact, read this post again and do the opposite of everything I have said (apart from this paragraph) and see your business grow steadily.

So, what type of entrepreneur are you? and what other helpful tips do you have to give other entrepreneurs to help them kill their businesses?