90pc businesses by young fail in first 3 years
Published on: Saturday, June 25, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Ninety per cent of business start-ups initiated by young people in Sabah have failed in the first three years, said George Lim, State Liaison Chairman of Persatuan Usahawan Maju Malaysia (PUMM).He said the main cause of failure was poor planning that later snowballed to other problems leading to the businesses' premature demise."We've helped to set up businesses for young people only to see 90 per cent of them fail to sustain in the first three years. It's down to poor planning," he said.
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He said it is encouraging to see ambitious young people wanting to become entrepreneurs but they have to know how to sustain their business and make it grow."It's always good to have a business start-up idea but what is more important is to know the steps they have to take to make it a success," he told the Daily Express during PUMM's feature talk on business growth, Friday.PUMM is a multi-racial non-profit making organisation that was established in 1993 by a group of young entrepreneurs. Its primary objective is to create a valuable platform for entrepreneurs, especially SMI and SME business owners, to share knowledge, experience and to create new business opportunities through seminars, forums, workshops, business visits and business study trips.
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To benefit young entrepreneurs in Sabah, Lim said, PUMM Sabah Biz Hub has been set up and aims to organise frequent workshops to help them, including SMEs, to scale up their business. He said in Sabah they are focusing on four target groups, namely young people under the age of 35, students who have an interest to become entrepreneurs after completing their studies, women especially single mothers, and home-makers and rural youths.
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He stressed that PUMM cares about developing sustainable businesses and therefore provides all the necessary support to start-ups so they will not run the risk of failing. He added that it will also try to connect ideas to fund resources available.PUMM facilitates the early crucial journey of a start-up, provides networking, learning and market access including to connect Sabah SMEs to the Peninsular Malaysia market by leveraging on technology and business logistics so as to enable the former to expand their products and services.He said PUMM Sabah has access to various government support programmes through its counterpart, PUMM KL, particularly for grants and other forms of assistance. "Our aim is to help them grow their start-ups all the way to be an IPO," proclaimed Lim, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of G&A Group, a growing business that he started 16 years ago from scratch. Drawing from his personal experience, 49-year-old Lim said there is no reason why small start-ups cannot grow big provided entrepreneurs have a clear plan on how to move ahead, at least for the first five years. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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