According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs fail within the first 18 months. Why is that so? What can be done to improve the success rate? Discuss opposing perspectives.

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Entrepreneurial Success
Every entrepreneur starts a business with dreams that profit will be made in return. However, Bloomberg discovered that only about 20 percent of these entrepreneurs end up being successful. On the other hand, already established business owners knows all that it needs to be successful such as confidence, motivation, drive for success and winning attitude making it less likely for them to fall out of the market. This analysis, therefore, aims at finding out why many entrepreneurs fail and what should be done to avoid such scenarios.
One of the reasons that most entrepreneurs fail during their first months in business is a failure to establish a connection with the customer. The client is the primary asset of the company since without them the business is inexistent since it has no one to buy its products. Every entrepreneur enters the market after seeing a potential gap in the market or after coming up with new services and products (Furr, 196). Failure to capitalize on this market gap is the worst experience an entrepreneur should experience. The best way for entrepreneurs to solve this problem is to institute a two-way communication with the customer in the business right from the start (Busenitz, 9). Many are the times that a new product or services will have the incomplete satisfaction to the client. It is rarely possible to achieve perfection at the first instance. Giving the chance to dialogue with the customers helps in acquiring ideas needed to improve the business services or products.

Lack of real differentiation in the market is another reason that many businesses fail within the first months. Most successful organizations are those that are built around offering the unique customer value from that of other competitors. However, most entrepreneurs just focus all the energy on the services or products they sell (Hoffman, 369). They fail to define the reason why the customer wants a certain product and the reason for buying. They don’t realize that in a market where there are many sellers especially in a competitive environment, one must be able to define a strategy of making their business look different from that of other firms. The resulting product is noise and chaos for those entrepreneurs who cannot define their unique value and therefore left fighting for the bottom scraps. Entrepreneurs must define a way to escape this major killer for the business. Solution to this problem is being creative especially in analyzing the customer’s experience with the market. One must be able to recognize opportunities and then place the company offerings in a unique way that existing competitors could not identify (Olson, 10). There are various ways in which unique differentiation is achieved such as in packaging, pricing, blending or coming up with unique service or product.Thirdly, the majority of new entrepreneurs fail in the market due to failure to communicate their value in clear, compelling and concise fashion. One might have a good business idea, but unless he or she can express the same to the customer, such ideas are meaningless. The majority of entrepreneurs in today’s market are very sensitive since many businesses are set up every day while the majority of failure to offer unique value. Due to this wake, one must be able to communicate the value afforded by the business in a compelling fashion to convince new clients their wishes or wants are going to be satisfied (Stimpson, 12). Solution to this problem is learning how to be a better communicator. One method of communicating the value of the business is being engaged with dialogue with such customers (Hoffman, 78). Requirements for excellent communication is clear, concise and compelling. The words used must be persuading and clear.
Fourth, leadership breakdown is typical with new business startups. New entrepreneurs have a high tendency of failing to realize the great leadership is critical for business success. They tend to be owners and at the same time running the business. Many of them lack leadership talent and other skills such as financing, marketing, and human resources management (Busenitz, 29). This problem is dealt with education on entrepreneurial success before starting any business. New entrepreneurs learn new concepts of leadership and various managerial skills required to run the business successfully (Drucker, 158). Business owners must gain the skills necessary to relate strongly with people and have a great personality.
The last problem leading to new business failure is the inability to have a profitable business model. The majority of new entrepreneurs are not able to define their revenue streams but only focus on just selling. Failure to identify the product fit in the market particularly when most profits are made means that such business already sunk. It is possible that most entrepreneurs will have all the above problems solved but cannot identify their profitable business model (Aldrich, 52). If a business is not profitable, then there is no reason to exist. Therefore, business owners should be able to identify the ways through which revenue is earned and what should be done to increase the profit margin. It might be through aggressive advertising or costs management at the production level. Business startup should identify ways in which spending should be reduced and at the same time creating value (Furr, 169). The business model should be nailed fast by thinking and moving quickly without the fear of failing. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who don’t care if they are going to fail or not.
Conclusively, this essay has managed to analyze reasons why most entrepreneurs fail during the first months of business as shown by Bloomberg. Solution and opposing viewpoints were the major focus of this discussion. Entrepreneurial success is not achieved easily but only be those individuals who can identify some concepts that are critical. Success factors include unique value propositions, ability to communicate value, leadership skills, and engaging customers and nailing a profitable business model.
Works Cited
Aldrich, Howard E., and Martha Argelia Martinez. “Many are called, but few are chosen: An evolutionary perspective for the study of entrepreneurship.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 25.4 (2001): 41-56.
Busenitz, Lowell W., and Jay B. Barney. “Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making.” Journal of business venturing 12.1 (1997): 9-30.
Drucker, Peter F., Frances Hesselbein, and Peter Economy. Peter Drucker’s five essential questions: enduring wisdom for young entrepreneurs. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2015. Print.
Furr, Nathan R., and Paul B. Ahlstrom. Nail it then scales it: the entrepreneur’s guide to creating and managing breakthrough innovation. Place of publication not identified: NISI Institute, 2011. Print.
Hoffman, Reid, and Ben Casnocha. The start-up of you: adapt to the future, invest in yourself, and transform your business. New York: Crown Business, 2012. Print.
Olson, Philip D. “Entrepreneurship and management.” Journal of Small Business Management 25.3 (2012): 7-13.
Stimpson, Peter, and Alex Smith. Business Management for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Print.