The prospect of starting a small business may strike people as exciting, intimidating, or both. This is for good reason; the appeal of being your own boss and launching a lucrative business is tempered by the high failure rate of small businesses. A quick internet search reveals no shortage of studies providing causes and statistics regarding small business failure rates. While the exact rate of each study varies by industry and timeframe, most studies indicate that roughly half of small businesses remain in operation within a few years of opening.
This reality invites the question of what makes the survivors successful? I recently had the opportunity to speak with a few small business owners, each of which owns a retail storefront. The purpose of my inquiry was simply to learn a bit about the challenges of being a small business owner, and even more so, to learn what has contributed to their survival and success.
Factory Direct Trains is an Asheville, North Carolina-based online and storefront retailer of scale model trains. Factory Direct Trains specializes in HO scale trains, and has been in business for six years. The Music Shoppe is a music store located in Harrison, Ohio, a suburb on the west side of Cincinnati. The Music Shoppe, which has been in business for 21 years, sells musical instruments and offers instrument repair service and music lessons. Originally founded by three partners, the Music Shoppe is now solely owned and operated by one of the original three. The Practical Outdoorsman, which is also located in Asheville, North Carolina, has been in business for two years, and sells retail and consignment outdoor goods for hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, biking and paddling.
In speaking with the owners of each of these three businesses, a few consistent themes emerged that were attributed to their success: conservative financing and the general avoidance of debt, a priority on customer service, business differentiation, and the service of an identified market void or opportunity.
All three businesses started small, slow and deliberate, and did not go into debt to launch their business. Often small retail operations with comparatively little overhead can avoid business loans with proper planning. Each business owner interviewed began with his own money, and in one case, also the money of two partners. Launching with savings as opposed to financing carries the benefits of a heightened personal commitment, as well as the absence of the burden of third party debt. Business loans or some manner of external funding are often unavoidable in other businesses with higher overhead and fixed costs, but retail can offer more flexibility in this area, depending on the scale of the launch.
A contributing factor to the low overhead of these businesses is the small number of employees, the largest of which employs four people including the owner. The absence of debt facilitated a business growth pace for all three, which was directly linked to the growth in sales and revenues. Conversely, some of the interviewees cited the opposite scenario in which a business owner, typically a rival, borrowed money to build a business that was of a scale larger than the market it served, and as such, the business was then unable to both service the debt and generate enough money to cover operating expenses.
