25% of businesses trade for 15 years Research suggests that just 25% of businesses are in business 15 years after they launched. Between 30% and 50% of businesses fail in the first 12 months, and, ultimately, up to 90% fail. It is surely reasonable to ask the question – to what extent would success rates […]

25% of businesses trade for 15 years Research suggests that just 25% of businesses are in business 15 years after they launched. Between 30% and 50% of businesses fail in the first 12 months, and, ultimately, up to 90% fail.It is surely reasonable to ask the question – to what extent would success rates have increased if these businesses had devoted resources to understand their market better.Another study found that 42% of the businesses that fail are marketing a product that their target audience does not want to buy. It is surely reasonable to ask how much money was wasted starting a business – that might have been saved if research was undertaken to identify the lack of demand.Research by Proctor and Gamble found that one of their products would sell in greater numbers when priced at $18.99 than either $15.99 or $12.99. It seems reasonable to ask if the…