We’ve all read it and heard it… over 50% of business start ups fail in the first 5 years. There’s a number of reasons why that happens. Rather dwelling on the negative, I rather look at the inverse and say 50% of business that do start up, are in fact, still around after 5 years. Why is that so? From my perspective, having started up a business start up 25 years ago, there are a few must-do philosophies that can be attributed to business success and longevity. Here are a few visual biz-isms from 3 ebooks published last year: Marketing Understood, Branding Understood and Social Media Understood.
Establish your definition of success before you start.
![Social Media Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.34.05-PM-300x298.png)
Objectives provide you with the measurement of success
Add Value.
![Add Value](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.36.43-PM-300x300.png)
Price becomes an issue at the absence of value
Take care of your clients, customers, audience, community.
![Branding Understood.](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.44.40-PM-300x300.png)
What’s in it for them
Good enough… never is.
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.43.03-PM-300x297.png)
Raise the bar…everyday.
Don’t wink in the dark…you’re the only one who will know what you’re doing. Communicate!
![Social Media Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.17.51-PM-298x300.png)
Talk to your target!
You’re intimate with your business. Your consumers aren’t.
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.50.47-PM-300x298.png)
Know your audience.
You don’t know it all.
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.21.46-PM-300x300.png)
Don’t rely on conventional wisdom.
Deadlines aren’t elastic!
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.08.44-PM-300x300.png)
Mark your calendar.
Complacency in business means death.
![Branding Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.13.17-PM-300x300.png)
Keep Current.
Believe in what you are creating.
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.53.28-PM1-297x300.png)
Stay true.
Business in general: Are you just interested or committed?
![Social Media Understood: Commitment](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.22.56-PM2-300x300.png)
Be wildly, passionately in love with what you do!
Be realistic.
![Marketing Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-4.49.07-PM-300x295.png)
Don’t over promise and under deliver.
Be passionate, not emotional.
![Branding Understood](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.39.47-PM-295x300.png)
It’s business. It’s not personal.
Businesses need to evolve.
![Branding Understood.](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.32.23-PM-298x300.png)
Enable growth.
Business is hard work.
![Branding Understood.](http://www.3h.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2013-05-20-at-5.33.06-PM-300x300.png)
Business Work Out Routine.
If you would like to have all the biz-isms, you can download them here.