If your email inbox is anything like mine, it's overflowing with exhortations to launch a new business or a new venture of some sort.
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm a rabid entrepreneurship fan. As a serial entrepreneur myself, and someone who works daily with
founder/owners, entrepreneurship is essentially my life ... but ... (and it's a big 'but') ...
... I've been through 7 recessions now, and I've seen the same pattern every time: a huge spurt in new venture launches, followed by a harrowing, distressing spike in new venture failures.
So if you, or someone you know is thinking of launching a new venture as your COVID exit strategy, watch the video below, and download the brief accompanying pdf.
If after viewing / reading you do decide to launch your own venture, you'll have no bigger a fan and supporter than me - I just want you to be really clear about what you're getting into ahead of time.
Please leave your questions and observations in the comments below!
Running time: 04' 02" Don't forget to leave your comments below!
You know, if you have followed my work for any length of
time, you'll know that
I'm an enormous supporter of entrepreneurship.
I started as a serial entrepreneur.
I think I launched 42 businesses before I was 35, and it was
the pattern recognition that happened during that period
period of serial entrepreneurship that brought me to the
work that is now my life's work - Predictable Success - and I
I love entrepreneurs.
I mean they are my tribe. You are my tribe - people who launch
new ventures, step out from relative safety and security to
take a big risk.
Those are the people that I love to work with and alongside.
And something that I've observed over the years is that
in times of economic downturn -
I think I reminisced about this in an earlier video -
I've been through seven economic recessions in
my time back in the United Kingdom, and now for the last 20
years here in the United States.
So I've seen this pattern play out seven times. What happens
in an economic downturn is that the number of new ventures
spikes enormously. Particularly in the recovery phase from
a recession.
But the other thing that happens is that the rate of failure
of new ventures spikes as well.
It's always high.
It's about 80% - in normal times 80% of all new ventures fail
in the first 3 years, and even that huge number gets higher
during and after recessions. And the reasons behind that
aren't hard to work out. A lot of people in an economic downturn
feel that they've really got no option - their backs are to the
wall. Now, believe me I get that.
That for a lot of folks starting their own thing is really
the only option that they have at times like this.
But the other thing that happens along side that is If I
was just to be mean and not try to think too hard of a nice
way to say this, there's an awful lot of manipulative profiteering
goes on at times like this.
I'm sure your inbox is bombarded like mine with emails from
people telling me now is the perfect time to you know, "launch
my own venture", "do my own gig", "do my own thing", when the reality
is that by far the majority of people - probably about 90%
of all the folks who start something new
in the next year at least, their new venture is going to fail.
Not because they're bad people, not because they're dumb, just
because it's not right for them. And so on a little bit of
a discordant note,
I was just going to record a brief video explaining why I
believe that it's probably not the best time to start your
new venture, but I ended up spending the weekend
putting all my thoughts together in a brief the
report. You can get it right below here
entirely free - no bait and switch and I'm not selling anything
in it, and it's not magnificently produced because I just
put it together literally over the last couple of days for
you. So if you're thinking, or somebody you know is thinking
of launching a new venture first of all God bless you and
if you do decide to go forward with it my heart will be with
you, and you'll find a mass of material here at Predictable Success
that will help you be successful if you decide to
go forward, but I want you first of all to just read my five
key reasons why it might not be the right time to launch
a new venture for you; and if you've got as I said you've
got somebody you know who you think would benefit from the
report please send them over to it. I'm Les McKeown, please
leave your comments below, tell me what you think of this
video, give me some feedback on the report. Let's make it a
great week despite everything!
