There’s a lot to be said for doing business in a way that earns people’s trust and respect. Here’s the story of a guy who failed at his first entrepreneur opportunity, but developed such good relationships with his contacts and employees that the same employees came to work for him in his new business – despite the fact that he hadn’t been able to pay them when his first business closed down.

I’m generally not a big fan of the idea that you have to fail in order to succeed. Nor am I in agreement with the statement made in the article that you have to go into business thinking there’s a 50% chance it will fail.

That said, what does it take to have something closer to a guarantee of success? What it basically comes down to is research.

Here’s a good example: The person featured in the article said he couldn’t find a way to make his business viable. He was selling used moving boxes, a great entrepreneur opportunity since this is definitely the right time to open a ‘green’ business. But he found he could not carry the business for the price at which he could sell the boxes, even though sales were very good.

A little research at the beginning – cost of employees, cost of acquiring the boxes, cost of storing and shipping the boxes, business taxes, other business expenses, and so on, would have given him this information in the beginning.

Achieving success takes good planning – market research, projected expenses, income, and so on. There are no guarantees, life is full of unexpected twists and turns, but if you do it, you have a much better than 50% chance of success.

By the way, the fellow in the article now has a new business model, and it is working. Check him out here.