I was reminded this week about the needless risks that some business owners take.

How the person looking to start a second business had come about their first business wasn’t fully clear to me but, with a few years experience behind them, business number two, along with a partner, was being embarked upon.

Ghost crutches (shareholders and directors) had supported that first business through turbulence; giving sufficient funding for it to remain relatively stable for a couple of years, the ‘ghosts’ were not of the mindset to take on another startup with one of their own.  As unmoving was deemed an adequate position for business number one, business number two became a broken leg with no crutches to support it.

Firstly, there was an equal commitment from the partners missing, additionally, it was being undercoated with delusion and all the time, the seesaw of business funding had left money-raising firmly on the ground for money-spending to soar ever skywards, to make money raising ‘heavier’ and ‘heavier’. How it could be sustained with unreliable methods was unfathomable – this was no way to start the business, definitely no way to keep it going and absolutely no way to run a business.

Without finance there is no funding, and because I had a solution that was reliable, it was even more uncomfortable watching these people on their crash course as they cut off their oxygen supply. They would lose their potentially good business before it had even got out of the starting gates.

Image credit: Bryan Mills  Article credit: Copyright SUF 2013 ©