Business Marketing Magazine Summer 2017 January 2016 Creating Clear Businesses | Page 18
Karl Gretz
Marriage
Karl Gretz
and Business
How Divorces kill your business
By
Karl F. Gretz, PhD
You probably already
know that up to 87
percent of all entrepreneurs fail out of
business within the
first three years.
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This occurs for any
number of reasons, including: lack
of funding, poor organization, poor
product choice, loss of interest, etc.
However, you might be surprised to
learn that a great many entrepreneurs
fail out of business because of marital / family problems – their own, a
partner’s or an employee’s. Every year
thousands of hardworking entrepreneurs lose their business when they,
or a key member of their team, divorces and leaves the enterprise.
If you know someone who has gone
www.businessmarketingmag.com
through a divorce, you already have
a pretty good idea of the emotional,
financial and physical toll it can take.
However, have you ever considered
the impact of that divorce upon the
divorcees’ quality and quantity of
work during and after the divorce?
This costs industry billions of dollars
each year in errors and lost productivity. While divorce is a serious problem
for large corporations, it can be catastrophic for a startup.
There are several reasons why divorce
is so prevalent among entrepreneurs,
including: feelings of alienation and
abandonment by the spouse and family due to the long work hours needed to get the new enterprise up and
running. Occasionally, it is the result
of infidelity resulting from long hours