Wilson Ng: Entrepreneur Views and Comments

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 11:13:51 GMT

To Franchise or Not to Franchise

One of the cardinal questions an entrepreneur would consider on starting a venture is whether to do on his own, to get partners, or to franchise? Franchise is an ever popular option, and not only can get you started in the right direction, but will be able to save a lot of potential pitfalls in the business.

Of course, if you are an established business, one way to grow it is also to franchise it out.

From statistics, it does seem that the failure rate of franchise is lower than those people start up themselves.

Prof Cornwall presents a great writeup on its pros and cons….

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:18:45 GMT

The Peter Drucker Legacy of Gems

I have been reviewing some materials on the legacy ofPeter Drucker. I’d like to cite some of his ideas, and writings:

1. Understanding what your Business is all about.

- Ask yourself always, ” Who is our customer, and what does he consider value?”
- ” There is no business without a customer!”

2. Questions Drucker posed to Jack Welch shortly after he became CEO.

- “If you weren’t already in a business, would you enter it today?”
- ” And if the answer is no, what are you going to do about it?”

3. When asked where he got his insights. (more…)

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:16:28 GMT

Two Precepts I Learned in Managing

This year, I have put some thoughts on the way my business is going, and I have learned two important precepts that I plan to implement next year. Business is good, but if we take time to continue to make it healthier , it does allow the business a better way to capitalize on opportunities when they present itself.

These precepts and principles are known to me as it is to most businessmen, but the effectiveness (more…)

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:06:40 GMT

Advice for Entrepreneurs

Don’t start a business just because you think you will be good at it.
Don’t start a business just because other people think you will be good at it.
Start a business because that should be the one thing you want to do most in life.

How much Does Luck Play in Entrepreneurial Success?

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:14:43 GMT

My associate professor in City University of Hong Kong, Prof Reuben Mondejar, who is also an author of the books, “The Guide to Entrepreneurship” and “Business Creativity: Breaking the Invisible Barriers” recently went on a university tour to talk to teachers of entrepreneurship. I was honored to be a guest speaker in one of the forums.

One of the arguments is how much luck does entrepreneurship plays in the person success, and amongst the things (more…)

The BizdrivenLife Entrepreneur

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:11:37 GMT

Many of us look at our jobs as something that we do to earn our keep. It is something that we do because we need to- but we look for fulfillment and satisfaction elsewhere.

But for many entrepreneurs, the business is more than that. Beyond just something to earn money, it is where you find your friends, it is where you find your identity, it is where you find your fulfillment. Many familes, especially Asian ones, led a truly bizdrivenlife – the business is where the family rotates, and patriarchs find identity and place in society because of their business, and the overwhelming objective is to find a small business (more…)

How to Make Money

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:06:33 GMT

Here’s an excellent piece on how to make money and lots of it. The technique? Reverse what everybody is doing. If this is what everybody does:

1. Somebody launches something
2. He tries to make money
3. Then he tries to make it valuable and useful

The author says if you do 3 first instead of 2, and 2 will come. Try to be passionate about something, and be really good at it. That’s all there is to it.

It is the same piece I wrote a few months back – the CEO should not concentrate to grow the company. He should just instead focus on making it healthy - because when it is healthy, it will grow.

Entrepreneurial strategies

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:05:14 GMT

When you plan to go into business on your own, there are 2 things that you need to be clear about, and Entrepreneurial Mind just made an excellent post on both:

a.) First, is that do you use your own money or other people’s money.
b.) Second, whether you want to go it alone, or find partners.

I guess how you go about it depends not only what you plan to accomplish, (more…)

Don’t Major in Minor Things

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:04:36 GMT

Over the course of business, I met many people who lament the fact that their businesses has stayed small. And they tell of friends or people they know who they believe are less capable than them who are reaping better rewards or managing bigger businesses.

Well, first, it does not matter how good you are if you don’t use what you have. You may be more capable, but if you are not going out and using what you have ( which for sure means getting out of your comfort zone, and taking a risk) , you are effectively not going to benefit from it. One of the better quotes I read is that phrase, ” A person who does not read good books has no advantage over one who does not know how to read.”

The other one is that many of the people have to gain more confidence, and have (more…)

The Importance of Basics in Management

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 23:43:47 GMT

I delivered a talk on a national conference on e-commerce, and I was told to inform the audience what are the new technologies that would be applicable to small and medium size businesses.

While I do understand that there are some businesses that are always on the lookout for the hottest and new technologies, the point is that at the end there are many technologies that are ‘hot’ but hardly (more…)

Keep your Credit line as High as Possible

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 23:37:22 GMT

There was a time when I have been very cautious about using credit, and definitely one way to make sure that you don’t get the opportunity to abuse it is to close it.

However, as time goes by, there are times when opportunity presents itself, or a crisis presents itself when the best course is to use credit, so apparently the best policy to make sure you keep your credit line as high as possible.

For instance, you are given 5 credit cards with 10,000 dollars line each, and your balance is $6,000. You may think that since you use only $6,000, you can cancel 4 of your credit cards. But that is not so good. It looks like you are using $6,000 of your $10,000 credit which seemed that you are overextended. However, if you continue to use only $6,000 out of $50,000 that you have, then you are only using 12 percent of your available credit, which looks better to creditors.

As long as it is not too expensive to maintain the credit line, and make sure that you are prudent in using it, the advice seems to be to get the credit line, but to utilize less than 50 percent of it unless necessary.

Earning from OPM

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 23:36:21 GMT

Earlier, I wrote an article about what is really the goal of entrepreneurship, and why it is the holy grail to financial independence.

The goal is to generate passive income. How do you distinguish that? Active income is the amount you earn based on your skills and time. Passive income is the amount you earn from your investments and assets — income that hopefully (more…)

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:59:46 GMT

More than half of US Small Businesses don’t use Accounting Software

One of our businesses is to sell accounting solutions to small and medium businesses. According to Small Business Trends, more than half of US businesses with 1 to 99 employees still don’t use accounting software. That means in the US, and more so in other parts of the world ( I reckon that the figure is higher — even upto 98% of SMBs in some parts of the develping world still don’t use accounting software) , there is still a huge market for this.

I will cover in other posts details about how accounting software can benefit businesses, but I would like to discuss the thought that contend that businesses who sell small business solutions (more…)

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:57:10 GMT

Planning Carefully where you want your Business To Go

A pilot would never leave destination without a flight plan, but so many business people do so!

You cannot just go into business like a game of chance. If you cannot visualize your success, it will be harder to get there. (more…)

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:54:22 GMT

The Rise of the Entrepreneurial Class

Small Business Trends wrote that ” A wide range of people today see themselves as entrepreneurs, — everyone from Martha Stewart to Snoop Dog to college kids to retiring Baby Boomers” . In other words, “entrepreneurship is a huge underexpressed force” today, even in large companies. More ….

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 15:04:59 GMT

Moving Bizdrivenlife

I am now updating and moving to the new bizdrivenlife site here.

I will still maintain this site as a mirror site for some days and weeks, but most of my new posts will be at the new site. In the next few days, I will also transfer the www.bizdrivenlife.net so that if you are using this as your marker, you will be redirected there.

If you are using my feedburner RSS to download my posts, which is as follows:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReflectionsOfABusiness-drivenLife, then I have redirected it to download from the new site, so you don't need to do anything. However, if you are not downloading anything new, pls. go to my new site, and subscribe to the Feedburner RSS on the upper left corner of the blog.

I hope that by moving my blog into WordPress, I can be more flexible, and it will be easier for you to search, locate the information you want, as well as notice the better organization of the new site.

The same 8 subcategories will still be there, and I have taken also the liberty of transferring some of the top posts the last few weeks there. My selected writings for the last one year is also there.

I am hoping with this new setup, I will be able to more easily communicate with you, and scale even better heights.

As usual, thank you for your support, and your comments are always welcome.

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 17:31:54 GMT

Showing off Your Cards -- and your Personality

My grandfather used to play mahjong (chinese classic tile game) with my uncles and friends every week at the house. When I was small, I would remember the sunday and holiday afternoons when my uncles, and their friends would come in, and start aggregating in the room. I guess in other countries, people have regular poker or bridge games the same way.

One of the interesting facets of watching the game is that people not only have different strategies on how to win, but you also see different interesting personalities at work. It is a good time to see how people react in different circumstances. There was the jolly one who always keep his cool, and here was the fast tempered one who would bump his head on the table when he makes a mistake. There are people who are the best people to be with when lady luck smiles, but they are the people to avoid when they have a bad day. There are people who play to relax, and there are people who play to win.

Mahjong is not only a game of chance, but there is also an element of strategy. You can strategize to win, or you can take your chances to maximize your win. Some of my grandpa's many friends always say that people show their best and their worst when playing mahjong, and the theory is that when somebody is courting your daughter, you should never say yes, until you have gotten your future son-in-law to a few games of mahjong together. A perceptive player can immediately glean into the personality of the person on how he plays. Is he a risk taker? How does he take pressure? How does he react when he wins? How does he react when he is losing heavily? How does he conduct himself when somebody makes a move that makes him lose? And how much strategy does he put into the game?

There are also paranoid players who choose not to organize their cards, and while try to visualize the arrangement in their minds because they are mindful that some players will be able to infer their other cards ( or tiles) on hand through where they pull out the cards. There are those who risk it these by taking care to organize the cards properly.

I guess in some way or another, we show off our personality, and it is usually in those off moments that people make a decision on how they really perceive us. I remember one writer who says that he could read a lot into a person by just observing closely how they go to a restaurant together. There are people who are definite on what they want. There are people who choose to order what they always order, and there are people who don't mind what is ordered, or is always game to try something new. There are people who order without looking at the menu, and there are people who scans the menu for something new, even if it is their 20th time in that restaurant that year alone. And there are some people who don't bother to look at the menu, and just starts to grill the waiter on what is the best food to recommend.

I also observed something when it comes to meal buffets. There are people who go out and gets just enough, even if they can get more. There are people who takes in more than their usual, because it is free. There are people who finish what they take, and there are people who amusingly takes in a huge amount, and finds out that he got more than he could take. There are also people who force themselves to finish what they have taken even if it was obvious they were full.

What are the other off moments in which interestingly, you give yourself and your personality away to an interesting observer? do you use these off moments also to understand people better? Is it good to make conclusions on your business associates based on their off moments?

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 04:17:19 GMT

Shared Accountabilities (on business) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

If you have a number of different divisions, or small businesses, one thing that is guaranteed is that you will never at any time, have the satisfaction of knowing that 'all' are doing well. At one time or another, some would be doing well, but some are still growing, or in the process of restructuring. It is almost like if you have 50 friends or family members, there will be very scarce a time that they will be able to find time together to meet at one place in one time. More often than not, some would be on travel, committed or sick. Similarly if you have 20 branches or 100 employees, there will always be a time when some people would be 'challenged', or some branches would not be doing as well as expected.

Don't be daunted. It is just the tyranny of numbers. Your goal is of course to make everything do well, but similarly also to strive to be happy and profitable EVEN if not everything is doing well. The man who is never happy unless everything is in place will find it very scarce that he can celebrate. Just like a librarian who would never be happy until all his books are returned and in place -- it may never happened.

At the end, however, excellent your business is, or fortunate your life is, you will never find it right if your goal is to find something that is wrong.

So, we have some products or divisions that is not doing well as expected. My colleagues ask me whether I was worried. One of our departments have been lagging behind several months, and still losing money. I said I was concerned, but in some way I know it would work out. Why? Because , first is that it is headed by capable people who has been successful before, and knows how to succeed. Second, they has as much to lose if it fails than I do, and a man or a team who knows how, and has every reason to do it, WILL do it.

Which actually , as an entrepreneur and as a businessman is your goal. You cannot do it alone. You need people to help you. And the most important thing you can do is to structure your cooperation that you have joint accountabilities and responsibilities. If you get people who are good, and work it out that they don't want to fail, and want to succeed with you, then I think you are already half way there.

Which may be the reason that franchises could be a better way to expand your business. Structure it in such a way that the franchisor comes up with the brand, and the systems/processes. Structure it in such a way that the franchisee commits to a proven system, and understands how to make it succeed - and give him the incentive to make it successful together.

A good system, plus the motivation propelled by a joint reward system. I think that should work, not all the time but most of the time. What do you think?

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 02:23:16 GMT

Is an MBA requisite for Entrepreneurs? (EntrepreViews) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

These are observations mainly based on our local businessmen, which I feel is reflective of the thinking of most developing Asian cities. Your observations may differ depending on your country or culture.

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For the last 20 years, ever since I took up a course of business management for my bachelors, I have been a keen observer of the way we do business and also how people of different countries and cultures do business.

One of the observations that is immediately glaring is how entrepreneurs or businessmen thinks whether studying management can indeed help make a businessman more successful or not. In fact, the attitude of most entrepreneurs here is that success is more a result of who you know, rather than what you know that matters, and of course, and whether you have the capital or not. It is an offshoot also of the Chinese way of defining success which they call guanxi – meaning who are your connections. It is also more as a result of being in the right time in the right place -- and not necessarily the right skills.

Obviously, this does mean that many people , unfortunately, don’t have a high regard for academic discipline. It is an established notion that while getting a masters degree or excelling in school can help you get better jobs, it does not necessarily equate to a person becoming a more successful entrepreneur. This disdain is highlighted by more than a couple of persons who told me that they took up medicine, or law, because they need to study medicine to become doctors, but if that does not succeed, they can always be entrepreneurs. And you hear from students that they went on to get a business administration or accounting degree, because they did not quite know what they wanted to do. As if getting a business degree or going to business is almost like something you do when you have nowhere else to go.

This has resulted in our country probably having one of the lowest rates of people going forward to get a masters degree. In countries like the United States, almost a third of people who get a bachelors moved up to get a masters, but in here, it is as low as 3 or 4 percent. The only large pool of people I know who go on to advanced studies are either those that are necessary for their profession – like medicine, law or teachers. For others, especially in business, people feel comfortable enough that an MBA almost is not required. As if it is almost a given that what you will learn in business school is very different from what you will encounter in the actual world of business, and therefore not relevant.

I was influenced by this notion, and almost 15 years since I left college, I find myself busy enough to keep foregoing my decision to enroll in an MBA course. Was it really necessary? Will I really learn something?

Last 2002, I took the plunge and enrolled. And it was an eye opener. No, business professors don’t live in ivory towers, and yes, their theories are practical and applicable. With that was borne a new respect that indeed higher studies matter.

Now we are in the 21^st century. It is the age of technology and globalization. Your competitor is not anymore the next door shop who is equally ignorant of business principles. Your competitors now are businesses in China, or in India or Poland who may be sporting masteral degrees. The competitive bar is higher. You need advanced studies to fight and define your competitive edge.

Is an MBA necessary? If you are like me, a bizdriven person, one of whose goal is to make my dreams come true in the form of my business, then it is. If you want to excel in the field, be one of the top 5 percent of the business, you will. If you want to grow twice, thrice or 10 times your size now, you will.

However, if you are the entrepreneur which I earlier dubbed as alterpreneurs, whose goal is to go into business for a certain lifestyle which the business will provide, and not necessarily focus on the satisfaction oor experience of owning or operating a business, maybe not. Your goal after all, is not to build something lasting, but just to make enough to ensure a comfortable lifestyle which allows you to do many other things.

What do you think?

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 23:16:24 GMT

The Entrepreneur Think (EntrepreViews) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

Entepreneurial Mind has a report which highlights the hard work needed for an entrepreneur to succeed. According to this report, Entrepreneurs on average work 52 hours a week. It also noted that small business owners work six days a week, with more than 20% working all seven. 14% of them took zero vacation days, and almost 40% of those who do say they still answer work-related phone calls and email even on vacation.

Nonetheless, 67% of small business owners said they were satisfied with their personal life-work balance and almost 90% said they were satisfied with being a small business owner in general.

Another post I particularly liked was his distinction on what is the difference of being a businessman and an entrepreneur. He believes that the distinction centers on private or public ownership of the company. According to Dr. Cornwall, the transformation is more defined through the IPO. In his opinion, when a business, no matter how small, goes public, it becomes a different entity than an entrepreneurial venture, and the founder becomes an employed manager. He become somebody who works for other shareholders than himself.

What do you think?

Also, I haven't been able to do so, but Dr. Cornwalls, and also Anita Campbell of the Small Business Trends site, are owned by great people who eventually became good friends through blogging, were winners recently of Forbes Best of Web Awards for Small Business. Congratulations!

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:40:28 GMT

A new Bizdrivenlife Compilation

I have been blogging for almost a year now, and it has been a gratifying experience, and I have made many new friends. I will continue to blog, but blogging has one slight disadvantage — it is good to comment on everyday things, but I do find it difficult to separate some of the articles that I have written that I feel is not only relevant today, but of some enduring value. The blog’s design makes it hard for us to separate this, as every new entry you put in pushes the article downwards and after a few days, to oblivion, seldom read again.

I have thus taken some of my articles which I feel is of great interest, and set up another site which contains the best selected posts I've done and redesigned to read more like an e-book. This is separated into four categories which you can also directly browse into — on business, on life, on technology, and on entrepreneurship. I will also soon a compilation of computer columns I write for the papers, plus a project management guide that I am working on soon. I hope you can browse on these articles and give me feedback. Some friends have wanted me to compile it into a download, and I will, but I feel I need to get more feedback from all of you.

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:00:40 GMT

Risky Businesses, Good Businesses, Bad Businesses (EntrepreViews) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

There was a time when young when I thought that management and attitude were the cure-alls. Maybe I read too many inspirational stories in which your determination beats the odds. Now, maybe I am wiser, or maybe just older. After so many years, I have formed the conclusion many now knew -- sometimes, success just depends on luck, and sometimes, your industry and the economic scenario. You can be a great manager who happened to be in an industry where the situation is really bad, and no amount of talent or determination can turn things around. And many times, there are just so many bad managers who were just in the right place at the right time, and succeeded.

So, the first thing you need to know before embarking on a business, is to know the industry you are in. Is it a conservative industry, or is it a risky industry. Is it in the period of growth, or just plain bad? For instance, for the last few years, you could be the best manager around, but no way you can turn around an industry like telecommunications, or computer hardware. In the last few months, you could be in oil industry when the prices zoom up, and you could be wildly profitable even if you make a lot of mistakes and waste.

I have made some simplistic charts in which you can use to evaluate the industry you plan to be in. Of course, a lot of these hinges on risk versus returns.

This is a good chart that shows an industry which is conservative. You perform average, and you would break even. You are slightly unlucky or turn in a bad performance, and you would lose a little money. You perform really above average, and you would earn a little bit more. In short, there is little more return for good performance but then there is little to lose if you don't perform.

This is a good chart about a typical risky business. You have a slightly above average performance level, and you would earn much more, but you perform below par, and you would end up losing also a lot.

However, a lot of businesses also fall a lot in between. The following is a business you don't want to be into:

This risky business needs a substantially high performance in order for you to break even. So, you are more likely to lose a lot of money if you don't perform really well. A performance that only breaks even in this industry could already have made you a lot of money in a different business or industry. This is what I would call a worse business scenario.

This is what I would call the worst business to be in.... It not only entails a high level of performance in order to break even, but performance higher than required will also yield low returns while a slight mistake could make you lose a lot of money.

Now knowing 2 businesses that you don't want to be in, the businesses you want to be in is the exact opposite.

This is one of the better businesses you want to be in. It doesn't require a high level of performance to break even. So even mediocre performance can turn a very good return.

This is the ideal business you want to be in - the best scenario. It doesn't need a very good performance to break even, and even mediocre performance lose only a little money, while above breakeven performance over mediocre will mean a very good return.

The overview is simplistic, but it would be a good rule of thumb to evaluate the business you want to be in. Does it offer good prospects of return even if you don't excel, or do you need to have a very high level of performance before it even breaks even.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 06:52:18 GMT

The Not to Do and Not to Know List (On Life ) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

I was talking to a good friend who was interested in many of the things I do. He asked me how much I bought my shoes for. I said I honestly don't know. My wife bought it for me. He asked me how much was the tuition of my children in that particular school. I told him I also don't know. He also asked me how much was the plane fare I paid for the last trip I took. I said the office got that, but also I didn't really know.

He was looking at me curiously, and I knew I had to come up with an explanation. I told him I trust my wife to make these judgments, and if it is something I don't need to know, I told her she did not have to tell me. I said I had to remember too many things in the office that I did not want to cram to my head too much information ( see also Offloading your brain article ). Anyway, I know where to look for the information should I need to know.

This attitude was probably inculcated from me from some of the books I read, particularly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. I like detective and mysteries, and read a lot of them since I was small. Sherlock Holmes, of course, is a classic detective well known for his observation powers, great memory, and clear logic. I remember there was a passage where they were talking about the planets of the solar system, and the stars, and after making the inquiries, Sherlock Holmes announced that now he knew, he would take effort to forget what he has been told.

When asked by Dr. Watson why, he said that while knowing the planets were interesting, he failed to see what good it would do in his crime detection work, and therefore did not want to put his head to remembering these 'useless' facts. Not having to remember useless facts means his head could also remember the useful facts better, he said.

The reason why these make a particular impression was that while I take particular care on choosing what to know and what not to know, I was not very good in the other thing that is important in the success of business and life -- which is what we need to focus and do.

Our success is not only in what we know, but in what we do, and for the last 20 years, I have lead a labyrinth of the most busy life, more often putting in 70 hour weeks. I have always taken pride in my ability to do things, and do indeed get myself involved in a lot of things. I have had always much more things to do than I had time to do it, and thus, for the longest time, have been a great fan of pocket and electronic organizers in how to prioritize, and organize the list. But whether electronic or paper, no tool was ever good enough, and it seems that the mountain of tasks just keep getting more and more.

Then just other week, I read an article that hit me. This was a Business 2.0 article on The CEO Handbook, which details some compilations Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson advice on business management. This particular advice stuck me like a bolt of lightning, and although it was something I had thought of before, it was simplicity itself in the way it was presented that jolted. Basically the advice is that if you are already upto your neck in work, the first thing you do is to come up with a list ( fair enough, I know that one). But it was a different kind of list. Instead of coming up with a to-do list, you come up with a Not-to-do list! The first thing therefore you should think about is not what you want to do, but what you can delegate others to do, or not to do at all!

That was great advice. AFter all, as i said always before, we can never find time to do all the things we want, and therefore we need to prioritize ( this has been a recurring advice you see here). But maybe, just maybe, it is not only prioritizing, but actually making a call that many things, while seemingly urgent, may not need to be done by you personally at all!

This is quite obvious, but I hope I can get a vote from my readers that the simplicity itself of the advice really struck home! I am sure many of the readers here are entrepreneurs like, and as entrepreneurs, we take pride in our ability to do things better than the others. But as we grow the company, we have to let go, and let others take the job -- and the credit. I have seen many entrepreneurs who do not have time to grow, becase they don't let go. They want to do everything themselves ( because they think they can do it better), and thus perpetually is not able to find time to grow the company.

So, the tools of business and personal success -- the not to do and not to know list. What do you think?

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 09:44:29 GMT

What is important to me (On Life ) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

I saw this in an Ecademy post, and thought it mirrors more or less what I myself yearn for in developing proper attitude towards:

Fame - I like a bit of Fame, but not of the celebrity sort - more to do with being known and talked about in good terms.

Money - yes but only because I have to earn it - 'the game is the thing - the money is just a way of keeping score'

Power - only in terms of being in control of my own destiny rather than anything to do with power over others.

Influence - Yes very important - I get as much satisfaction from influencing and developing my staff as I do from influencing my customers.

But what is really important to me is ACHEIVEMENT - I use my business to fulfill that personal need more than anything.

That's me too!

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 09:46:06 GMT

Business Failure highest in the First two Years (EntrepreViews) (selected articles in bizdrivenlife compiled)

According to Small Business Trends, a survey noted that, across sectors, 66 percent of new establishments were still in existence 2 years after their birth, and 44 percent were still in existence 4 years after.

It noted that most of the businesses do indeed have a higher rate of failure in the first 2 years. The sector with the lowest rate of failure was in education and health services, while the highest rate of failure was in information technology.