“Growing broke” is, unfortunately, all too common in the world of small business. Although growth is good, unless the financial consequences are understood and strategically planned for, growth can destroy your business.

How does your business's financial performance stack-up? In this Bizdom, we explore how to use industry financial norms, or scores, to answer this question and identify areas of opportunity.

An entrepreneur's job is all about feeling lost and finding a way back. It's about, as I've discovered in my six years since starting a qualitative research firm, Creative Focus, Inc., maintaining altitude. It's about correcting, as does a pilot, for the inevitable ups and downs in order to stay airborne.

In a recent survey, the three top reasons given for wanting to start/run a business were:

1. To be my own boss and not have to work for or answer to someone else (36%)
2. Freedom to do the things I want to do, like spend more time with friends and family, travel, etc. (28%)
3. To make a lot of money (24%)

Although these are compelling notions, statistics show that if they are the main reasons for starting your own business, your business will most likely fail.