In the short time The Building Experience has been operating we have encountered a number of factors that have thrown its existence into doubt. As with any new business the possibility of failure in the first year is very high. With detailed research and planning we can do our best to eliminate these factors however there are always going to be a number of unforeseen  events that may bring a business to an end before it's really got started. In this blog we will look at the major barriers to success that i think TBE and any new business venture will face.

In my previous Blogs i have already discussed a couple of the issues that i think are crucial to our companies success. The first of these was finding the right employees. The workforce is arguably the most important factor in the success or failure of any business. In our case this is especially true as TBE can only develop if we have employees that are highly skilled but can also interact with clients. If we could not find these people we would be doomed to failure.

The second factor that has already been covered is pricing. As we offer a unique service it is not simply a case of going out and looking at what our competitors are charging and basing our decisions on that. We have to make sure we price for work at a level that is attractive to our customers, but that also is high enough to ensure we make a profit. This may seem quite simple but in the short time TBE has been in existence we have missed out on a couple of jobs for being too expensive and have also carried out a couple of jobs where we have under priced and effectively worked for free! I'd like to claim that was an intentional strategy to be a loss leader, but actually we just made a mistake. Clearly pricing can be a major barrier to success.

Another barrier to success which we haven't previously touched on is time. At the start of any venture individuals effectively have to assume the role of marketing manager, finance manager, operations manager and human resources manager. Assuming all the roles and responsibilities that come with those positions you start to wonder where we will actually find the time to do the work that the business was set up for, in our case building. Moreover, in many cases people start up their business alongside their day job.... there really isn' t enough hours in the day! But sleeping is for wimps anyway and we don't employ them at The Building Experience.

Another important consideration is support. This may be from colleagues, friends or family. At this point i could trot out a number of old clichés like "behind every great man there is a great women, tidying up after him", "together we are exponentially greater than the sum of our individual parts", and so on and son on. These may be a bit over used, however if we don't have the necessary support it is unlikely that a venture will be a success. 

Then there are all the unforeseen external events that affect businesses. Such as climatic events, terrorist acts, technological breakthroughs, plus political and social changes that can not always be forecast. However if we spend all our time worrying about these things we would probably give up on our business ideas before they even get started.

So there are clearly a number of possible barriers to success. It's no surprise that the factors i have highlighted as the likely barriers to the success of TBE are probably the same factors that individuals would highlight as the reasons behind their failures or lack of success, no time, no support, etc. However there is one more factor that remains, and to my mind it is the major barrier to the success of a new company and to individuals. That is our own fear of failure. "I could never set up a company so i won't bother trying", "I can't give presentations, so i won't bother going on Dragons Den to look for investment", "I'm nowhere near as handsome as Nick Knowles so there's no point in me asking that gorgeous girl in the office out on a date".  It is our own fear of failure that holds us and our business ventures back so often and if we can overcome this plus the other barriers to success that i have presented, then we at least have a chance of achieving our goals.