1. Management in Complete Denial
2. Failure to Adapt to a Changing Market3. Reliance on
Critical Financing that Dries Up
4. Poorly Designed Business Model
5. Poor Internal Controls and Execution -- customer service,
accounting controls, theft, fraud
6. Add New Products or Divisions that Drag Down the Profitable
Ones
7. Failure to Prepare for Volatility of Uncontrollable Costs.
For example, energy, materials, labor, or insurance.
8. Failure to Control the Controllable Costs. Businesses
spend down the initial cash before it is flowing in at a positive rate.
9. Poor Capital Structure. Companies take on too much
debt....Enough said!
10. Over-expansion. The need to get there first or to
demonstrate revenue growth to anxious investors leads businesses to
grow too fast.