Fact: Only 5% of People Who Start a Business Make it into Year 6.

“95% of small business start ups fail within 5 years. Two-thirds of new employer firms survive at least two years, and about half survive at least four years.” (Source: Small Business Administration 2004).

How can this be when same US Government source claims that small firms represent more than 99.7% of all employers? Why is failure rate so high? Here’s why. 95%of all start ups have no masterplan in position at outset and in consequence flounder and sink without a trace. What’s more, this alarming fatality quotient applies equally to offline and online enterprises. Even worse, tens of thousands more start a business every day and follow exactly same route to disaster.

Fact: Google lists in excess of 12,000,000 web sites offering advice on how to start a business - but how many I wonder emanate from people who’ve actually done it for themselves. My site does. I’ve founded, owned and operated dozens of small businesses – and I’m still doing it. I’ve also authored two widely-acclaimed bestselling hard copy books on topic, ‘Starting Your Own Business’ (How To Books ISBN 1-85703-859-2) and ‘Starting an Internet Business at Home’ (Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8); titles that sell in big numbers online at Amazon.com and offline in bookstores throughout world.

Now I’m unzipping my case notes spanning forty years of successful independent commercial activity to present you with an all-in-one masterplan to ensure success before you start a business – and to maintain momentum in tandem with your endeavors so that you don’t end up in same place as 95% of start ups: dump truck.

So, you can imagine my impatience when I didn't hear back from person to whom I'd made proposal. She had welcomed idea, but told me decision would be made by a council within her organization.

Given dynamics of an important decision about future of their organization, I didn't expect a quick response. But, I would have liked at least an update advising me on status of their considerations.

Then, I had a "Eureka," or maybe I should call it a "Whoops," moment. I realized I hadn't reported back to people in my organization either. That made me guilty of same lapse of communication as lady in other organization. With that recognition, I made amends by sending out an email to my organization, and followed up with a report at a meeting.

In taking an analytical view of this incident, I realized that nothing can be something when it comes to communication.