Starting your own business is definitely not for the faint of heart. Sure, the idea of being your own boss and working your own hours is a dream that most “9 to 5’ers” can only dream of doing. But don’t think that entrepreneurship is the epitome of living the American Dream. True enough, being an entrepreneur does have its perks but rest assured in knowing it most certainly has its pitfalls as well.

It’s no secret that 20% of small businesses fail within their first year of opening and 30% fail within the second year of opening. So as a budding entrepreneur, what are you going to do to be different? How are you going to assure yourself that your business doesn’t become part of that statistic?

Well, history does tend to repeat itself, and a lot of the mistakes entrepreneurs in the past have made, continue to be made to this very day all because people don’t pick up on those trends of failure. All you have to do is learn from the mistakes of those businesses.

Embarking on the brink of entrepreneurship, this is your opportunity to take the road less traveled. Here some of the most common reasons why your small business is probably failing or will eventually fail.

You’ve Hired the Wrong People

When you start your business, it’s YOUR business, so that means that the way you take pride in running it doesn’t mean the people you hire will; And that’s actually fine… As long as the people you hire understand their responsibilities and have a pleasant demeanor and strong work ethic, you should be fine, right?

Well, yes and no. You, of course, will go through the process of the standard checks before hiring an employee and interview them about their experience and skills, but what about who they are as a person? All too often, potential candidates will ace interviews but once hired, turn into some of the most unpleasant people you’ll ever work with, negatively impacting your business.

Make sure you ask situational questions to each candidate you interview and also ask those same questions to the references they provide for you as well. There are indeed signs to also pay attention to that will help you spot a bad candidate who seems perfect for the job.

You Don’t Have the Right Systems in Place

When running a small business, you’re going to be dealing with lots of data, whether recording, computing, or inputting it, there is no room for error here… One wrong calculation or inputting of information can completely throw off all data for project management, recordkeeping, and other business processes.

This typically happens because certain areas of a business are being run from different operating systems. When this occurs, it leaves too much room for error and miscommunications. If you haven’t invested in a fully integrated software program like JDE software, you’re ultimately setting your business up for failure before you can even give it a real shot at success.

You Didn’t Invest Enough in Marketing

For some reason, business owners tend to think that marketing is just not as important as other areas of their business. In their minds, marketing is something that can be done for free through social platforms, and while that is true, there’s so much more to marketing than just making posts on social media.

For one, in order for your business to be successful, people have to know about it, and a few posts on social media won’t cut it. Not only do you have to make posts, but you also have to know when to post so the majority of your target audience will see it, and you have to know what types of posts to make to get your audience engaged.

This is not something you do when you have time for it, either… it needs to be a continuous and regular occurrence to build brand loyalty. If you don’t know how or have the time to market your business yourself, do yourself and your business a favor and hire a reputable marketing firm.