Quote from gkishot:
This article is very confusing to me.
At the end of her statistics table she concludes that there is 1 out of 3 chance one will be in business after 10 years.
According to this logic 85% of people stay in business after first year. But does it mean that 85% of people are profitable after first year? I doubt it. This number is kind of high for success rate after 1 year in business. And why actually the success rate of business profitability decreases over time. Why would business which is profitable after 1 year degrades its performance and becomes unprofitable in 10 years? This makes little sense to me.
I agree that she is not saying that they are necessarily profitable after 1 year.
I think part of it is how you view things, does initial success equate with being profitable?
To me success would mean being able to function as a business, being able to do what you do regardless if you are profitable. Obviously there comes a point where you need to become profitable or cut your losses.
Take the video site company that just got bought out by Google, from what I read about them they were up to their ears in debt, but they continued to function as a business and now they hit the jackpot.
They might be a bad example to use but I think you get the idea. If you believe anything is possible than when do you throw in the towel?
Would they still be where they are at if they quit 6 months ago?
Its probably just survival of the fittest whoever is willing and believe's in what they are doing to keep going on until they reach there goal.
Just because a business closes after 1 year or 10 years does not necessarily mean it wasn't profitable. To me a more accurate reason would be that the desire/passion to continue the business is not sufficient to overcome the "price of admission" to continue.
It could also be summed up as so eloquently stated by CaptainObvious:
"That's sticking your toe in the water and saying, FUCK, this is colder than I thought."