Getting an Advantage in Business

Statistics show that nine out of 10 new businesses fail within the first three years. This is pretty depressing to the entrepreneurially-minded among us.  Why do they fail?  The possibilities are endless, but for most, the reasons probably boil down to just a few:  poor location, not enough help (owner burnout), inadequate initial funding, inadequate market research and planning.

Very often, small businesses are started by someone with a passion - whether it be for bicycles, computers, gardening or pizza, it's the product or service that moves them to follow their dream, NOT their business savvy. Some people purchase a franchise, hoping to borrow the franchiser's business know-how, but many fend for themselves and expect that things will just work out.

In addition to a passion for and knowledge of your specific product or service, starting a business generally requires either a basic knowledge of, or an advisor in all of the following fields:  business law, insurance, bookkeeping, accounting and taxation, advertising, marketing, websites, social media, public relations, graphic design, real estate and interior decorating.  In order to save money, many new business owners attempt to do it all by themselves.  This prevents them from benefiting from a professional's expertise and contributes to owner burnout.

So, what's an entrepreneur to do? Learning the basics of planning, testing and measuring, goal-setting and how to create and train a great team (who don't all have to be employees) goes a long way toward reducing owner stress levels and improving the odds of success.

Surge Business Growth Engine is the brainchild of Mary Redler and John Dano of Wantagh.  In their respective practices as a publicity consultant and business coach, the pair discovered that most often their clients would have benefitted from having both of their services, but the cost of retaining them both might have been restrictive.  They came up with the idea of bringing people together in a club-type atmosphere, so they could all benefit from the education and advisement as a group, keeping the rates affordable. They thought of other business needs and added discounted services from pre-screened business to business providers, an in-house grant award and more to round out the program and Surge was born.  They are offering free sample Power Hours at their offic

e on Tuesday, April 2nd at 6 pm, April 16th at 9:30 a.m. and April 30 at 9:30 a.m. Visit www.surgbiz.com, e-mail info@surgebiz.com or call 516-946-8750 for more information or to reserve your seat.