The plight of the small biz owner

I just read a post on LinkedIn where the question posed was that since more than 50% of small businesses fail in first four years and more than 90% fail within 10 years...why is that and what can be done about it?

That set me to thinking.

I've been working with micro-businesses for quite some time now, and by and large they are a great group of hard working folks.  Too hard working, perhaps. They open their shops and close their shops on either side of the day. They stock the shelves, sell the goods, mop the floor when the toilet overflows. Most small business owners wear all the hats that need to be worn in the span of the day, the week, the month and year. And vacation, well, vacation is something you do vicariously or consider as downtime the week you were flat on your back with the flu.

The responses to this question posed on LinkedIn were eloquent and full of rock solid information about feasibility studies and entrepreneurial insights. I say fooey. Micro-businesses don't fail because of a lack of ability, feasibility or even entrepreneurability.

The problem is cash flow.

Small business owners just don't have access to sufficient capital to weather the start up, growth and maintenance cycles of their business long enough and steady enough to succeed en masse.

I've heard so many small business owners say that they are petrified to add staff because they can't bank on being able to meet payroll six months down the road. And without additional staff -- and good, talented staff, mind you -- small businesses are stuck in the "never enough" cycle of business. Competition is so fierce and the buying pie so big, there's never enough. They can't market themselves well enough to gain sufficient new customers. They can't provide enough customer service to those customers they already have. They can't forecast their profits, their growth, their payroll beyond the next bend. Whether it's in four years or 10, who can work at that pace for so little? Sooner or later the spark that fuels the get-up-and-go snuffs out.

Is it government's responsibility to fuel small business better? Hard to imagine since our government does such a good job at its own business (yes, sarcasm). Could city governments have (real) local small business funds and resources? Not if they can't afford to build better roads or pay their teachers well. Could big business share their staff and resources as a community service? Not if their shareholders want more profit.

I loathe to put this out there without offering some tidbit toward a solution. Alas, I have none.

But I'm sure listening in case you do.