1 Trending: Same-Sex Couple Sues Surrogate After She Refuses To Abort Baby With Cleft Lip

2 Trending: Notorious Wisconsin Clerk Faces State Investigation Again For Election Integrity Mess

3 Trending: The Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library Shows How Deeply The Left Captured Our Cultural Imagination

4 Trending: Are You An Immigrant With A Deportation Sob Story? Thank Democrats

10 Hacks For Launching A Start-Up And Keeping It Afloat

AI makes the future of smaller start-ups daunting, but these time-tested tips will help increase your chance of survival.

Share Article on Facebook

Share Article on Twitter

Share Article on Truth Social

Share Article via Email

Artificial intelligence is costing people jobs at increasingly fast rates. In 2025, 55,000 workers were laid off because of AI adoption. This year, AI is responsible for 87,714 planned layoffs, representing 22 percent of all announced job cuts in 2026.

With no new industry emerging to offer displaced workers relief, the desire to survive has driven record numbers of people to start businesses. In total, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that within the next year, almost 30,000 new corporations will form each month.

However, 65 percent of these businesses will not survive to their ten-year anniversary. As a sole practitioner of 35 years, I’d like to offer 10 actionable ideas that can increase your chances of success. Many small businesses fail because of completely preventable things, and I would like to give some ideas that may help.

Legendary heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until he gets hit in the mouth.” Nowhere is this expression more true than in business. Having a business plan is an extremely valuable tool to keep you focused on important tasks and show potential investors or lenders you are serious.

Begin with a mission statement, and then itemize a list of critical steps to accomplish on the way to profitability. This is also the time to establish how much working capital you will need to successfully launch. Always overestimate that number. You can look back on it from time to time and evaluate what went well, what you needed to work on, and what was unnecessary.

Don’t be afraid to be specific. Also don’t worry about getting it wrong. An interesting place to start looking for ideas on how to do this is the “lean canvas” method, which is a single-page business model. You can amend it to align with your situation.

2. The Part You Hate Is Probably What You Need to Do the Most

Critical job avoidance can kill a new business. It is........

© The Federalist