Why Do Small Businesses Fail?

According to Innovation, Science & Economic Development Canada statistics thousands of businesses exit the marketplace every year in Canada. Business failure statistics show that about 96 percent of small businesses (1–99 employees) that enter the marketplace survive for one full year, 85 percent survive for three years and 70 percent survive for five years (Key Small Business Statistics). Approximately 7000 businesses go bankruptevery year in Canada.

Microenterprises (businesses with 1 to 4 employees) have a slightly lower business failure rate than other small businesses; after five years in business, 70.4 percent of micro-enterprises survived compared with 66.9 percent of other small businesses (Ibid).

The 7 Things Angel Investors Are Looking for in a Business

Angel investors typically reject three-quarters of investment proposals sight unseen - even though angel investments are one of the most popular forms of financing for businesses and angel investors are always looking for new opportunities to invest in sound, well-managed companies. How do you get an angel investor to invest in your business? What are angel investors looking for?
Angel Investors Want:

1. The potential for a solid return.

Angel investing involves a high degree of risk, so angel investors have the expectation of doing more than just getting their money back when they invest in an enterprise.
They are looking for a higher return on their investment than they can get on the stock market, for example. “For every dollar that an angel puts into a company, he or she would like to take seven dollars out, after taxes, in seven years," says Allan Riding, a leading expert on angel investing and professor at Carleton University.