Top 10 Reasons B2B Startups Might Fail

Top 10 Reasons B2B Startups Might Fail

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There is as much to be learned from failures as there is from success. Find out the most common reasons why B2B startups might fail during the first five years.

10 Areas Where Incompetence and Inexperience Can Cause B2B Startups to Fail

From cash flow to customer terms, unless you’ve run a business before, what you don’t know might hurt your new business. Find out how to protect and strengthen your startup or young business by shoring up knowledge and expertise in these ten areas that account for 75 percent of all young business startup failures.

Unless you have launched a startup or small business of your own, it is hard to describe the feeling of excitement and limitless opportunities that startup owners experience when they first open their doors (whether brick and mortar or virtual.) Equally difficult to describe is the vast disappointment that same small business owner will experience if they are forced to close those doors permanently within a few years (or even months) because their young business is no longer viable.

As alarming as it sounds to say that half of all startups are no longer in business by the five-year mark, it’s not like the five-year mark is magic. In fact, more than seven out of every ten startups will fail within the first ten years. (statisticbrain.com)

The industries with the highest failure rates by year four (when 50 percent of all new young business startups are said to have failed) include:

  • Information – only 37% still in business after 4 years
  • Transportation / Communication / Utilities – only 45% are still in business after 4 years
  • Retail – only 47% are still in business after 4 years
  • Construction – only 47% are still in business after 4 years
  • Manufacturing – only 49% are still in business after 4 years

On the flip side, the industries which have the higher success rates by year four are listed as follows:

  • 58% of Finance / Insurance / Real Estate organizations are still operating after year 4
  • 56% of Education / Health organizations are still operating after year 4
  • 56% of Agriculture organizations are still operating after year 4
  • 55% of Services organizations are still operating after year 4
  • 54% of Wholesale organizations are still operating after year 4

From Startup to Young Business to Out of Business, Top 10 Reasons B2B Startups Might Fail

Statisticbrain.com listed the top ten reasons that a young business might fail under two main categories: incompetence and inexperience. One could make the argument that incompetence occurs largely due to inexperience or lack of knowledge needed to put the right policies into place; but for now let’s stick with their categories and talk a little bit about the most common reasons that startups tend to fail within the first five years.

Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail

Incompetence accounts for 46 percent of small business failures within the first ten years of operation. The specific areas of incompetence that derailed these startups included:

  • emotional pricing
  • living too large
  • not paying taxes
  • no understanding of pricing
  • lack of planning
  • no understanding of financing
  • no experience in record-keeping

As you read through the list, it’s easy to conclude that many of these small business failures could have been prevented if the entrepreneurs had educated themselves in the areas of finance, taxes, record keeping and pricing. What’s more, the problems that result in all seven of these areas directly affect cash flow, which is the lifeblood of any business, of any size.

Inexperience accounts for 30 percent of small business failures occurring within the first ten years of operation. The three specific areas where lack of knowledge and experience resulted in startup failure were:

  • poor credit granting practices (lack of experience in setting the right customer terms)
  • expanding too fast
  • inadequate borrowing

Even more than the previous reasons cited for startup failure within the first decade, these three reasons point back to an inadequate understanding of cash flow management, which, in turn, is just about certain to result in inadequate cash flow needed to sustain a small business.

Cash flow is simply the movement of money into and out of your business. Positive cash flow results when revenues exceed expenses; conversely, negative cash flow occurs when money is going out of a business more rapidly than revenue is coming in. Inc.com lists five ways to improve cash flow (collecting receivables, tightening credit requirements, increasing sales, discounting for early payment and obtaining financing).

However, it’s not always possible to implement some of these suggestions. For instance, if extended customer credit terms are being employed as a competitive advantage, it may not be possible – or even advisable – to demand that customers pay up more quickly.

How to Speed Up B2B Business Cash Flow

Any of the reasons cited for the demise of 76 percent of the small businesses that failed in their first ten years could have been experienced by any type of B2B (business to business) organization. Though some could have been prevented by entrepreneurs educating themselves or working with experts in the areas of planning, financing, record keeping, taxes, etc., some of the problems are more complex.

For instance, a small business might want to require customer payment up front or on delivery but may need to extend more favorable terms to their customers in order to compete with larger, well-funded competitors. Likewise, some small business owners may have a good handle on financing and record-keeping, but that does not ensure cash flow from customer sales will always match up in a timely manner with operating costs, expenses and payables.

That’s where invoice factoring can help. Invoice factoring is a financing tool most B2B organizations who invoice their customers for payment after delivery of goods or performing of services can use to better manage cash flow. Rather than waiting for their customers to pay, they can factor – or sell – a customer’s invoice to an invoice factoring company like Corsa Finance and get payment for the invoice within days – or even hours.

Factoring invoices allows an organization to gain immediate access to the working capital that might otherwise be locked down in their receivable invoices for weeks (or longer). With immediate payment on invoices, cash flow can be maintained at a more consistent level, and revenue can be matched up more closely with correlating operating expenses.

Speed Up Cash Flow by Factoring Invoices Instead of Chasing Customer Payments

Get a free, no-risk quote for invoice factoring:

  • Average monthly sales or amount of invoice to factor
Business Turnaround Strategy and Invoice Factoring Go Hand in Hand

Business Turnaround Strategy and Invoice Factoring Go Hand in Hand

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The top priority in most business turnaround strategies is to speed up and stabilize cash flow, giving a company time to cut expenses, grow sales and regain momentum. Invoice factoring can play a key role as part of a business turnaround plan; here’s why.

Top Business Turnaround Strategy Priorities for Distressed Companies

Implementing tactics for stabilizing cash flow and collecting payments on invoices as quickly as possible is usually priority one when business turnaround consultants come in to help a struggling business. Why? Simple: Speeding up cash flow buys time for a struggling business – time that is critical to allow business restructuring, operational, personnel and procedural changes to be enacted, take root and begin making a difference.

In Best Practices for Turning Around Distressed Companies: The First Steps, the CEO and managing partner of NYC Advisors LLC advises that step one in a business turnaround strategy is to get control of cash and cut unnecessary expenses, including “Collecting your accounts receivables as quickly as possible,” even if it means offering cash discounts for faster payment.

In lieu of offering cash discounts to customers for remitting payments within the first few weeks after an invoice goes out, a struggling business could receive payment on a customer invoice within 1-2 days of when the invoice is generated by factoring, or selling, the invoice to a factoring company for a small fee (called a factoring fee). Furthermore, the factoring fee charged for same day payment on customer invoices will probably be significantly less than a quick-pay customer discount and may even be tax deductible.

Invoice factoring could be preferable to offering customers early payment discounts for many different reasons; such as:

  • Early pay discount still means a delay in collecting on receivables of a few or even several weeks
  • There is no guarantee that a customer will take advantage of an early pay discount, especially if it’s a fairly minimal percentage
  • If early pay discounts are offered to all customers, over time a business could earn significantly less than it might have otherwise collected
  • Customers may come to perceive early pay discounts as “the real price” of goods or services and devalue them in the process
  • Customers may compare terms and demand that their terms be equally favorable to others
  • Early pay discounts may need to be fairly significant (5%, 10% or even more) to get customers to pay right away, whereas your factoring fee will likely range between 4-8%.

Invoice factoring offers a business tools that can stabilize cash flow right away, at a minimal cost. We have programs with factoring fees that start as low as 4 percent which is less than many customer early-pay discounts. In addition, instead of waiting a couple (or several) weeks for customers to pay, factoring clients can get free same-day funding on invoices factored with us, with advances up to 90 percent of an invoice amount.

How Invoice Factoring Can Fuel a Business Turnaround Strategy

For struggling or distressed companies, low cash flow is often the most pressing challenge to address. Speeding up cash flow is a top priority. Without adequate and consistent cash flow, a struggling business will not have time to remediate the problems with its pricing, personnel, marketing, purchasing, overhead and other operational areas that can turn a struggling company back into a thriving enterprise. In other words, speeding up cash flow gives a struggling business the working capital needed to put other components of its turnaround strategy into motion.

Invoice factoring enables businesses that invoice customers for payment on terms to collect payment on invoices immediately, without waiting for customers to pay, for a small fee (called a factoring fee). We can help distressed companies get agreements into place so they get an advance of over 90 percent of the face value of the invoice within 1-2 days of when an invoice is factored at a small cost (or factoring fee) which could be as low as 4 percent.

Here’s how the process works:

DAY ONE Client factors a $10k invoice $10,000
Receive a 93% advance on the invoice $  9,300
Factoring company earns 4% $     400
3% held in reserve $     300
DAY 30, 45 or even 90+ Customer remits payment in full
3% reserve returned to client $     300

 

In this example, factoring the invoice gives a struggling business access to as much as $9,300 on the same day the invoice is generated, and ultimately collects another $300 for a total of $9,600 collected. If the same business elected to extend a 5 percent within 14 days early pay discount to its customer instead, it might wait up to two weeks to collect any money on the invoice at all, and still only receive $9,500 of the invoice amount.

If the customer elects not to take advantage of the early pay discount, the business could receive the full amount but may wait 30, 60 or even 90 days to collect on the invoice. In addition, the business owner or bookkeeping staff may have to invest hours of time on collection phone calls and reminders before the customer pays.

Another advantage of choosing invoice factoring to speed up cash flow as part of a business turnaround strategy (instead of offering customer fast-pay discounts) is that the business can continue (or begin) to extend favorable payment terms to its customers as a marketing advantage. Since the business can collect on the invoice on the same day it’s generated, it does not have to spend time or resources chasing payments or worrying about how quickly a customer will pay.

Benefits of Our Invoice Factoring Services for Your Business Turnaround Strategy

Our goal is to help our clients grow their organizations from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. This mantra has impacted the way Corsa Finance tailors invoice factoring programs for our clients and how we do business. For distressed companies, our program can make invoice factoring even more effective as part of a business turnaround strategy, with potential benefits such as:

  • No factoring minimums – clients only factor when it’s best for their business
  • No long-term contracts – use factoring as a transitional, short-term or long-term solution
  • Low factoring fees
  • Competitive advances and fast funding
  • Personal, professional customer care with a knowledgeable account manager
  • Program tailored to the needs of the business instead of a “one size fits all” approach

A free, no-obligation quote is all it takes to find out how factoring invoices can instantly speed up and stabilize your organization’s cash flow, creating a consistent flow of working capital that enables your business to regain market share, keep customers, employees and vendors happy and put your company on a faster track for growth.

We would be happy to provide you with a free, no-obligation quote for invoice factoring services, even it you simply want to compare it with your current factoring agreement to be sure your business is getting the maximum benefit from receivables financing: 

  • Average monthly sales or amount of invoice to factor