How Long in Years Should I Wait Before I Close Down an Unprofitable Business

[Mpamaegbu]

~snipped~

I agree with you, there's no way I will keep investing in a business when am not making profit from the business even after three years that's crazy you know? 

Yeah, it's crazy. I believe keeping such a non-profit yielding business for that long is hoping against hope. It's the same thing a sore trader would do to a losing trade. Instead of closing it, they would rather allow the loss run deep in the hope that the trade would revert to profit. I don't think any seriously minded businessman would want to keep a business that's not making them any profit to run that long as three years. Except that person is a money-miss-road and that's certainly not business.

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[jokers10]

Imagine paying bills or rent within 3 years if your business is not profitable. You'll go broke that time, and instead of transitioning to another business, you'll get into debt because of your current business that is not profitable. That is why, for example, if you don't make a profit for a year (consecutive months) despite making some improvements to increase profits, it isn't working, and it is time to start another business. 

Some businesses can take long before they start bringing income. For instance agriculture business can take years before you'll get any revenue. And there can be other criteria to decide if it is developing right during early period. And yes, for such types of business you should have an initial capital not to become bancrupt earlier that business will go on.

But right you are, if there is no positive trends in income and business doesn't show that it can be interesting to clients then it is not a good idea to take loans not to lose such business: if something is already going down it will just burn your funds to ashes. I saw several businesses which faced with troubles with finding clients, they borrowed not to close immediately, and after all they were in debt and their businesses didn't survive anyway. Loan can be good when everything is growing to grow even faster and it is bad when everything is shrinking.

[Adbitco]

How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable?

Every business has a principle before you could start making profits from the business, if you don't gradually follow up those rules you may not see any profits from it.
It takes 5 good years to start making good profits from any business, jumping from one business to another without you knowing the secret will results you losing money on the regular basis. Normally every secret of a business are being revealed at the 5th year so you have to endure after the 6th year you may decide to quit or close it down.

Those who are not patient enough may result in closing the business in just within a year or two, every business needs to be nurtured properly to grow in a better way. You can't expect to jump into business today and starts making profits without nurturing and it takes 5 years for the nurturing /growing period to elapse.

[Queentoshi]

Yeah, it's crazy. I believe keeping such a non-profit yielding business for that long is hoping against hope. It's the same thing a sore trader would do to a losing trade. Instead of closing it, they would rather allow the loss run deep in the hope that the trade would revert to profit. I don't think any seriously minded businessman would want to keep a business that's not making them any profit to run that long as three years. Except that person is a money-miss-road and that's certainly not business.

Once a business is not bringing profits, then there is a very big issue, because the number one purpose of going into business is to make profits so when that is not happening, then problem has started, and when you see the business is not bringing profits, and you have tried many other methods to see if things will change and still yet nothing has changed, and you have waited for some couples of years to see if with time things will get better but that is not happening, then the best thing to do is to close the business before you run into debt.

[goldkingcoiner]

How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable?

I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal¹ was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business."

According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do."

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVbhNCt0yF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I would not be so quick to put a number or a limit on the amount of time you should wait until you close down a bad business. It is really a subjective matter. Why is the business failing and can it be fixed? Are you willing to invest more time to bring the business up again? How dedicated are you to this venture? There are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself before deciding to break away from something that took you years to build up.

I think that if you truly feel there is no longer a point, and that feeling is not just a split second emotional decision, then you should quit that business and cut your losses.

But putting a time limit on things will not give you clarity on whether or not the business has any chance left to make it.

[BIT-BENDER]

Well I would tell your the harsh truth, and that’s one of the main reason people give up on their businesses and that’s expectations. Many small and medium scale businesses owners have the narrative that they should be earning big time form their businesses.

The competition in any business now is huge and this factor you must consider when trying to grade how successful your business has been. I think you should not close your business just yet and weigh in factors like are you getting less than you putting in, how competitive is your business, have you found a better alternative and so on.

[bosede1]

I agree with his point of view, any business that one venture into and for the first year it wasn't profitable, you try other tactics in the same business for the second year and still no result, you push harder to the third year stand still my advice at the end of the third year is to move on to another kind of business.

[Davian144]

I agree with his point of view, any business that one venture into and for the first year it wasn't profitable, you try other tactics in the same business for the second year and still no result, you push harder to the third year stand still my advice at the end of the third year is to move on to another kind of business.

The option of moving to another business also requires one to think about a different strategy for starting that other business. Indeed, this is a solution because previously you have tried to run a business which in the end did not make any progress, but by starting another business, of course everything has to be prepared from scratch and you also have to use new capital to start it.

And actually there are also other suggestions that can be taken for this where someone who has run a business before to move the business to another place so they can see how the sales response that occurs in that business. Because usually the environment in which we do business is also very influential on business progress, so this one suggestion can also be tried to see whether the results will be better or worse than the previous one.

[sana54210]

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

I think it's too painful, doing business three years but not having a profit, I doubt that it is doing business. If the calculation is half a year or six months of not getting a profit from the business that is being carried out, I think many of us have experienced it because it is a marketing, adaptation, expedition and other step in doing business.
Doing business in the first three years and not profit, I personally have never felt it.

I think it's about the finances of the business as well. If you have a million dollars, and you lose 100k a year, then 10th year makes sense, if you have 100k and losing 200k, then six months. Basically it's about how much money one has and that changes everything.

I personally believe that the best thing to do in this case would be making sure that you do not go beyond your budget and do not force yourself to be poor after you bankrupt. Leave it as you still have some money aside. I once owned one business, my only attempt at life, and I had a small budget and tried it and when I was done and failed, I still had 150 bucks left, I know it's tiny amount but it means I wasn't at negative and that's how everyone should stop, "not negative".

[milewilda]

How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable?

I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal¹ was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business."

According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do."

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

3 years is a long time of waiting and trying out to make yourself get convinced whether your business is profitable or not,In my case then i would definitely be stopping out my business in 1 year time if ever i do see that
it is pointless on trying out to sustain that business for too long on which you are just simply throwing or shelling out your money for nothing and this is something that we dont really like to happen.
Well, its up to someones or businessowners decisions on when they would be stopping.You are building a business to make revenue or profits and not to run in out for just trying out to make it as a hobby
or something that you are trying to figure out something or whats wrong.

[Cookdata]

When a business is not profitable, there are factors that need to be rechecked if they are working well and follow the timeline of the business you are doing, if for example you are into sales of wears and shoes and you decided to sell your product online on e-commerce, if after some months and you didn't have enough sales, you can increase the level of outreach to people by doing advertisement on the lowest level that it wouldn't affect your profits or offer digital marketing to companies that offer them, you can also increase your products to social platforms without spamming and also sharing to friends, if they don't work well, you can change the product but if that doesn't work, then call it a quit and take your losses.

[TribalBob]

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

agree with that statement, where 3 years is enough time to see the direction of our business, but for me personally for 3 years it is very long to go through it, whether I don't have a business soul or am not lucky, in 1 year I can try 1- 2 businesses and which one produces more, I will focus on the one that produces, but with business competition, sometimes the business that I have has to close early, I can't hold back rivals who have large capital

[D ltr]

We will see what business situation we are developing first, if we are doing a business that is currently a hit then we can see its development in 1 year,
but if we pursue the food business, agriculture, I think it takes quite a long time to see our success, remember that a large business / business takes more than 3 years of effort, in my opinion, by looking at the people who are in business

[PX-Z]

I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal¹ was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business."

According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do."

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

It really make sense to stop, but it could be at the early years. Like at second year without getting enough profit is enough to convince you that the business is not working as it should be for whatever reasons, either its in high competition, bad location, products, management, crew or people, etc.

[virasisog]

36 months would be long enough for you to determine whether a business is running well or not. You can easily determine if your business is profitable in just a span of a year because if not, you might probably be losing even your capital. It is normal to encounter problems in the beginning but if you notice that you are not recovering your losses and the cycle is continuously running, you better check your mistakes, the strategies that you have to polish, and your target market as well. If things still aren't working for you, you don't have to stop trying but rather switch to another location, product, or target market.

[mindrust]

Depends on the business. Do like this business? Do you know it well? Why do you think it is not generating profits? Is it because you can’t find any customers? Is it because the customers don’t like your services/products? Is it because the margins are too slim? Depending on your answers to these questions I can easily tell if you should quit. My first question is the most important question though… If you don’t like this business you don’t even have to think about the rest of the questions… no like? Instant sell.

[concept2]

How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable?

I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal¹ was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business."

According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do."

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVbhNCt0yF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

When it comes to businesses, there ain't no one-size-fits-all solution to determine when it's time to give up on an unprofitable venture. Kelvin O'Neal might say to shut it down after three years, but that's just a rough guideline. It's up to the boss to decide when enough is enough. But check it, every business needs to have a game plan and tactics in place to tackle any obstacles standing in their way. If after three years, there's still no progress, then it might be time to rethink the whole shebang or close up shop.

On the flip side, some companies take longer than three years to start making it rain. Why, you ask? Well, it's all about the competition, the ups and downs of the economy, and the damn red tape. They can all be major factors in determining if you're swimming in dough or drowning in debt. So, don't lose your hustle, stay strong, and get some wisdom from the bigwigs in the biz.

To sum it up, every business is unique, and three years ain't the magic number to throw in the towel. The boss needs to look at their goals, resources, and progress to decide whether to keep going or to pack it in. What do you think about this? Have you ever had a biz that took longer than three years to make bank?

[naira]

36 months would be long enough for you to determine whether a business is running well or not. You can easily determine if your business is profitable in just a span of a year because if not, you might probably be losing even your capital. It is normal to encounter problems in the beginning but if you notice that you are not recovering your losses and the cycle is continuously running, you better check your mistakes, the strategies that you have to polish, and your target market as well. If things still aren't working for you, you don't have to stop trying but rather switch to another location, product, or target market.

It's not easy to maintain the current business, even though the environment and target consumers are adequate, even though business competition will corner us, even more, to keep dropping prices as much as possible. Online competition erodes offline-based businesses, and based on facts in the field, an online business also has tougher competition. Everyone must survive and when the OP starts to feel that the sector he is in is not producing results or in other words the profits generated are not in accordance with the target then there are 2 possibilities to survive and be able to bear all the losses in the long term or switch to a new business sector.

[alastantiger]

Businesses can take a long or short period begin profiting depending on the kind of business and your location of the buainess and also inclusive of your approach and strategy you applied.
Any business' that takes a period of 2 to 3 years to be profitable must be a big business investment. A business with a good location and well planned strategy involved should at least take 2years to be profitable and if after the second year you are not still profiting you can change strategy then if it does not still profits you, you can go ahead and shut it down. Because if you continue the business hoping it will be profitable in the 4th or 5th year you may end up loosing your capital. Remember, during this period of building the business, you as a person will be spending from whatever money you have left with you.
So to be on a safer side, after the 3rd year of starting the business and its not yet profitable, don't wait any longer to avoid much looses.

[tread93]

How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable?

I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal¹ was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business."

According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do."

- To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ?

-Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it  kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?

1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVbhNCt0yF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

This is tough question to answer because it's completely subjective on one's business and drive. How badly do you want success, are you willing to do whatever it takes? If this business isn't a passion and you aren't completely obsessed with it and convinced that you can't make money on it, even after the 3rd year of trying with all of your might then I would say throw in the towel cut your losses and move on to find the next business that will be successful. Sometimes calling it quits too early though also takes away the chance for success if done so too early. Just a super tough call. Can you elaborate more on the business?