Normally, successful businesses do not start, grow, peak, decline and die like the classic bell-shaped curve. You thought about starting out, growing and continuously prospering. Your thoughts were focused exclusively on the first half of that bell curve. Well, welcome to the real world.
Most businesses are like personal physical health.
Sometimes your business ails, and it's very healthy at other moments. Take, for example, the business that exists in a geographic region that thrives off a tourist industry. When the tourists come, you make good profits. When they leave, your sales decline. Larger retailers realize 70 percent to 80 percent of their sales between October and December of each year.