Guest Blog: Success or Failure – Give yourself the best chance.

Posted on by Don Cullinane

Cullinane & Co Cork

Guest Blog: Success or Failure  – Give yourself the best chance.

Some sobering business facts:

  1. More than 70% of start up businesses fail within 5 years
  2. Of the 30% that get through the first 5 years, 70% + will fail within the next 5 years
  3. By contrast, more than 70% of franchises are still trading 5 years on.

So what’s the difference? Franchises usually have a tried and tested business model and market tested products – the McDonalds Big Mac™ is the same around the world, delivered in the same way regardless of location or local management.

So what can non-franchised start ups learn from the success of the franchisee? There are two significant issues to keep in mind;

  1. Technical Competence v. Management Competence
  2. External support / External Perspective

Technical Competence v. Management Competence

A high percentage of businesses are started by people who are highly skilled in a particular profession or have strong technical skills. For example, solicitors start law firms, computer professionals start IT service firms, hairdressers start hair salons, software developers start software firms – the list is endless.  The problem is that the technical skills are a necessary but insufficient set of skills to compete in the modern economy. You need the following (at least!)

  1. Business Development skills (marketing, sales)
  2. Financial Management (the boring stuff for many people)
  3. Operational  & Technical skills (good – box ticked here)
  4. People Management (of yourself and your staff)
  5. Strategy (Clarity about what you are trying to do)

I suggest you take a look in the mirror and give yourself a straight answer to the question “How do I rate under the 5 headings above?”  – then do something about any gaps you identify.

To run a McDonalds franchise you need to know how to flip burgers but lots more besides.

External Support / External Perspective

Eric Schmidt – the CEO of Google – said that everybody needs a coach.  A coach can see things about you and your business which you simply cannot see yourself. This is the “Can’t see the woods from the trees” problem. How many times have you been a customer of retail business or used a service and have been amazed at the level of incompetence, inefficiency or poor service? This is what the customer experiences – there can hardly be more important issue for a business, but the management is often last to know.

Have a look at www.managementworks.ie or email me on doncullinane@eircom.net

Don Cullinane is a Chartered Management Accountant with extensive Irish and International commercial experience in private and public sector organizations in both executive and non-executive roles. His key strengths are in business performance improvement, management development, business development, financial management and in conflict resolution and prevention.

Don has worked with SMEs across all sectors and stages of development and in financial services in London (Citibank and Barclays de Zoete Wedd), hotels (Intercontinental Hotel Group), publishing (Octopus Publishing Group plc) and in senior management roles up and including that of Chief Executive Officer. In 2005 he was appointed to the board of directors of Cork Airport Authority and re-appointed in 2009.

In 2009 he joined the highly reputable UK based Business and Executive Coaching firm, Ology as executive director in Ireland and he has coached over 100 individual SME owner managers to date.