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我 们都在寻找好用的创业成功秘诀。但如果告诉你惨败的秘诀呢？我们为什么要了解失败之道呢？因为你也许没有意识到，你已经在沿着这条路走了，至少在一定程度上如此。如果你知道应该规避哪些东西的话，或许可以及时挽救你的生意。 我分析了这些年自己认识的、共事过的或指导过的所有创业者以及研究过的所有企业，据此总结出了六大惨败秘诀。如能避免这些，你的成功几率会显著上升。 1. 想一夜暴富。 你看到了一股潮流，就像10年前的网页设计，于是你马上赶起了时髦，因为这股潮流看起来很棒，能让你迅速发财。要么就是，你把钱投给一个承诺让你在短短几个月内赚上几百万的项目或是教练。这些都是不可能的。迅速致富的念头很少能成为现实，也从不具可持续性。 那如何利用那些潮流呢？社交媒体这个热门主题怎么样？这不正是赚钱的好机会吗？的确如此。有一些人会赚到钱──那些对社交媒体满怀激情的人。而其他所有人都会失败。 一旦你一心一意追随自己的激情，财富──甚至是大量财富──就会慢慢创造出来。当你真正开始赚钱的时候，你就会引领潮流，而不是跟随潮流了。这才是致富的正确途径。 2. 在走下坡路时加倍努力。 你碰到了一点麻烦，所以你决定，最好能想出办法，每天多挤出一个小时时间来做更多事情。当这一努力失败后，你开始认真地考虑进行“克隆实验”，想挤出更多时间来完成双倍的工作。赶紧停下来吧。多数创业者之所以失败，是因为他们苦干有余，巧干不足。 不 要问自己怎样才能在工作日中多挤出几个小时时间，而要问这样的问题：未来几天我怎么才能花10个小时建立系统，以便用10秒钟的时间搞定这件事？失败的创 业者几乎总是筋疲力尽。而成功的创业者则拥有可持续的系统，不仅能让他们用更短的时间做更多的事，而且能作为业务规模扩大所需的基础设施。  Vetta 你 有几个“问题”客户，他们占用了你大量的时间和精力，付款时却又拖拖拉拉，于是你决定对他们做点工作，以建立更好的关系。别这样。花力气修补薄弱或挑战重 重的关系会令你无暇顾及最佳客户，这就意味着，最终所有的客户都会不高兴。让我们直面现实吧──那些难缠的客户对你永远都不会满意。我的第一个生意就是在 我放弃最薄弱的客户、并花精力培育与稳固客户的关系之后真正实现飞跃的。 4. 只看公司总收入。 看损益表 时，如果总收入还不错的话，你就会认为自己做得挺好，因为你关注的是流入公司的钱。错！如果到头来没有营运现金流，总收入就没有任何意义。你必须考虑你手 中能余下多少钱。我知道许多创业者会说他们拥有上百万美元的项目，但最终却会赔钱。我还知道有一些创业者做的是15,000美元的项目，却能赚到 10,000美元。 请思考一下这个类比：假设我们把创业者比作渔夫，失败的创业者以捕到多少条鱼来衡量一天是否成功。而成功的创业者则以有多少条鱼下锅为衡量标准。 5. 只关注钱包。 你 总在考虑钱──能从一个客户身上赚到多少钱，要不就是别人能介绍给你多少富有的客户。错！每当我见到一心算计能赚多少钱的创业者时，我就知道我能从他们身 上找到削弱公司表现的软肋。你关注的重点应该是竭尽全力帮助客户。在开发与我们生活密不可分的最新产品时，乔布斯(Steve Jobs)考虑的是钱吗？不可能。我认为他心里想的是，“在我死之前，我怎样才能做出一种能对社会发挥最大影响的产品？” 6 . 把爱好变成生意。 你 能用最原始的材料做出超棒的意面酱，朋友们认为你应该把它装进瓶子里拿去卖。错！启动和发展一项生意需要激情，有了激情，早晨你会早早从床上爬起来，因为 你迫不及待要去做一件事。你会整天去做这件事，爱上它，甚至在你筋疲力尽、连鞋带也没力气系的时候也一样会去做。这不是爱好。爱好是释放能量的；而激情则 是创造能量的。 当然，还有其他失败之道，但上述方法十分简单易行。只要你能严格遵循，到圣诞节你的生意一准完蛋。 Avoid These 6 Recipes for Business Disaster We are all looking for a recipe for business success that is easy to follow. But what if instead there was a recipe for disaster? Why would anyone want to know the formula for failure? Because you may be blind to the fact you are already following it, at least in part. And if you know the ingredients to avoid, you'll save your business before it's too late. I thought about all of the entrepreneurs I've known, worked with and mentored over the years, and all of the businesses I've studied, and I came up with six recipes for disaster. Avoid these and your odds of success will increase dramatically. 1. Get rich quick. You see a trend, like Web design 10 years ago, and you jump right on the bandwagon because it sure looks like that would be a great way to make money fast. Or, you invest in a program or coach that promises you'll make millions in just a few short months. Not happening. Get-rich-quick ideas are rarely true, and are never sustainable. But what about those trends? What about the hot topic of social media, isn't there money to be made? Absolutely. People will get rich─the people who are passionate about social media. Everyone else will lose. When you follow your passion with a single-minded focus, money -- and lots of it-- will be created over time. And when you do start making money, you'll be ahead of the trend, not following it. That's how you get rich right. 2. If things are going south, work harder. You're ankle deep in the red, so you decide you'd better figure out how to squeeze an extra hour of the day to get more done. When that fails, you start seriously looking into cloning experiments, so you can get twice as much done. Stop right there. Most entrepreneurs fail because they try to work harder, when they should be working smarter. Rather than ask yourself, how can I find extra hours in my workday, ask yourself how can I spend 10 hours over the next few days developing systems so that this one thing can get done in 10 seconds? Failed entrepreneurs are almost always exhausted entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs have sustainable systems in place that not only enable them to do more in less time, but serve as the infrastructure for scaling their business. 3. Nurture the weak. You have a few 'problem' clients who take up a lot of your time and energy and then reward you with late payments, so you've decided to work with them to create a better relationship. Nope. Devoting your energy to fixing weak or challenging relationships deprives your best clients of your attention, which means you'll eventually end up with unhappy clients all the way around. Let's face it those crabby clients will never be happy with you. My first business really took off when I let go of my weakest clients and nurtured the strong. 4. Measure revenue from the top line. You look at your income statement, and if the top line looks good, you think you're doing all right because you're focused on the money coming into your company. Wrong. The gross revenue means nothing if, at the end of the day, you have no operating cash. You need to think about the money you'll have leftover. I know many entrepreneurs who say they have a million-dollar project, but actually end up losing money in the end. And I've known entrepreneurs who landed $15,000 projects and took home 10,000. Think of this analogy: Failed entrepreneurs measure a successful day of fishing by how many fish they catch. Successful entrepreneurs measure a successful day by how many fish they cook. 5. Focus on your wallet. You're always thinking about money how much money you could make off of a client, or to how many referrals you can get to well-heeled clients. Bad choice. Every time I see entrepreneurs with a singular focus on how much money they can make, I know I will find ways in which they are weakening their company. Your main focus should be on doing everything you can to help the client. Was Steve Jobs thinking about money when he developed his latest round of products we can't live without? Not likely. I would argue he was thinking, 'How could I make a product that will have the most impact on society before I die?' 6. Turn your hobby into a business. You make a killer from-scratch spaghetti sauce, and your friends think you should bottle it and sell it. Wrong! Launching and growing a business requires passion, something that pulls you out of bed in the morning because you can't wait to do it. And you'll do it all day long, and love it, even when you're so exhausted you can't even tie your shoes. That's not a hobby. A hobby is something that releases energy; a passion is something that creates energy. Sure, there are other ways to fail at business, but this formula is fool-proof. Follow it to the letter, and your business will be toast by Christmas. MIKE MICHALOWIZ |
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