Why Might Indoor Tanning Salon Owners Fail?

I recently read a brutally honest article regarding small-business failures. The author pointed out that often times, we ask entrepreneurs why their businesses failed – when, in truth, if they really knew the answers, they likely wouldn’t have failed in the first place. (Denial can also play a role, as you don’t hear many failed entrepreneurs confessing things such as, “I just didn’t know what I was doing.”)

Here’s a summary of some of his no-holds-barred reasons that small businesses fail, along with commentary for tanning salon owners:

1. Bad math

At a basic level, this can be a matter of supply and demand. A new tanning salon opens in an already-saturated market, or it tries to take on an established mega-chain – without being able to compete with its pricing or services.

2. Bad owners

Whether they’re too lax or too strict, too selfish or too immature … It takes the right personality mix for a small-business owner to succeed.

3. Too much of a good thing

Sometimes when business is booming, salons jump into expansion mode – when many other options are wiser.

4. Lack of financial perspective

Even (or especially) if a salon has hired an accountant, the owner still needs to have an intricate grasp of the day-to-day business financials.

5. No backups

Financial reserves are of the utmost importance, but there should also be a contingency plan for covering employment vacancies (including emergencies for the owner), holding steady if a new salon opens down the street, etc.

6. Low standards

Nobody wants to think of their business as inferior, but frankly, many businesses are.

7. “Lean” operations

If there’s anything we’ve learned from this economy, it’s that salon owners need to make their dollars stretch – renegotiating leases, planning for JASON, and possibly eliminating some of the salon splurges that used to be common. It also takes wisdom to cut strategically and not just haphazardly.

8. Poor management

Enough said?

Click the source link below to read the article in its entirety.

Source

Yahoo! Finance: Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail