PAPERmaking! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY Volume 1, Number 1, 2015
5 Obstacles Guaranteed to Slow You Down Keith Johnston, www.truleadership.com Many start-ups invest time, energy and money in setting the stage for rapid growth. They develop elaborate marketing plans and hire a sales team to get the message out. They also ensure that they will have the production capacity to deliver their solution to all the customers who are going to rush to buy their products and services. With all this planning and preparation 80% of them will not make it past the first 18 months, and 80% of those that remain will be gone before they celebrate their 5th anniversary. There are many reasons companies fail to reach the acceleration speed required to launch themselves into the small elite group of companies that are successful. Most of those companies that fail in the first 18 months had good plans, were well funded and had a promising value proposition. So why do they lose momentum and fall back? What keeps them from growing? In my experience with technology and IT service organisations, there are five reasons start-ups fail to develop and maintain the momentum required to be successful. This short item, aimed predominantly at entrepreneurs and start-up businesses, contains much general ‘management’ information that can be translated to any type of business.
Copyright: © 2015 Johnson, K. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
The Paper Industry Technical Association (PITA) is an independent organisation which operates for the general benefit of its members – both individual and corporate – dedicated to promoting and improving the technical and scientific knowledge of those working in the UK pulp and paper industry. Formed in 1960, it serves the Industry, both manufacturers and suppliers, by providing a forum for members to meet and network; it organises visits, conferences and training seminars that cover all aspects of papermaking science. It also publishes the prestigious journal Paper Technology and the PITA Annual Review , both sent free to members, and a range of other technical publications which include conference proceedings and the acclaimed Essential Guide to Aqueous Coating .
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