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How to Run a business Update March 25 2025
How to run a business
Last month I wrote an article on running a restaurant and as I was writing it, I realized, with a few specific differences, running a successful business is just as easy, or for many, just as hard as the very difficult restaurant business.
Actually it can be maddening to start a business and probably as it should be. For if it was easy, the things that make it hard are the seeds of giving good service and/or providing a good product.
An entrepreneur that starts a business will find out soon enough whether he or she is doing it correctly by how many “votes” they get in the process.
Votes in the business world are dollars. Put in simple terms, although business startups need time to get the word out and attract customers, eventually, given enough time, the votes (dollars) should start trickling in. Either that or what you are offering is not very much in demand.
The longer you operate, the more dollars (votes) should come rolling in. If you are doing it right that is.
I once had lunch with a business mentor that had been in the business of mentoring for many years. He made the comment he was having a hard time monetizing his service.
To me, that meant he had a hard time making enough money at doing what he was doing. In business terms, he had a hard time getting enough votes.
People vote with their dollars. Offer something they want and they’ll cast their votes your way and fill your coffers.
Take APPLE for example. Apple gets billions of votes every year because people love what they offer in the form of their phones and their ancillary businesses like the APP STORE.
If a new business is opened and the dollars don’t eventually start flowing in meaningful amounts, it either means the public doesn’t need or want whatever it is you are offering or in the way that you are offering it.
In the restaurant business, it might mean they don’t like your food or your service. If it’s a clothing boutique, maybe they don’t like the clothes you’re selling, or maybe your prices are too high.
It could be a number of things that are causing you not to get votes (make money). The bottom line is the public, much like a disliked politician would lose due to lack of votes, are not casting enough votes in your direction.
I can’t tell you how many people I talk to year after year that couldn’t make a business work.
Like my previous article mentioned: nine out of ten new businesses end up in the trash heap. And unfortunately, may do significant financial damage to the entrepreneurs in the process.
The failures are not tied to any one type of business, although the restaurant business seems to be the top dog in business flop overs along with web based businesses. Web based businesses have many home based platforms which are started on an idea and a whim with often little capital, which may be why the numbers are so high for web business failures. As for the high number of restaurant failures, as anyone that has run one will tell you, it’s a darn hard business both in hours and profit margins as well as the inherent mechanisms of offering a perishable item.
In conclusion, starting a successful business can be very rewarding both financially and personally if you come up with the right recipe both in your offering and how you offer it.
There are many things you will have to address and navigate in the process of starting a new business and I won’t list them all here due to space constraints, but plan on working an ungodly number of hours to both start up and run your new business.
You can forget about sleeping in and better plan on long days and even longer nights. Most successful business owners will tell you they never worked harder nor longer. It’s just the way of it.
Those that refuse to put in the long hours are probably the nine out of the ten that fail because they went back to bed.
All kidding aside, it’s damn hard to open a new business. So make a solid plan, perhaps get a mentor, listen to advice and research, research, research.
It’s not easy but it’s worth it if you do it right.
“Watching the markets so you don’t have to”
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(As mentioned please use the below disclaimer exactly) THANKS (Regulations)
This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services. Email: news@moneymanagementradio.com
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