Wednesday 21 November

Australia’s start-up rate, albeit briefly, became a political issue recently when Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said that a Coalition government would boost the number of small businesses (without saying exactly how he’d do it).

But less focus is placed on the failure rate of our new ventures. As Abbott’s predecessor Malcolm Turnbull pointed out last week, we need to remedy a situation where nearly one in three start-ups don’t manage to survive beyond their second birthday.

So what are the major causes of start-up closure? Today, we pick out five of the key reasons why new ventures go under and explain how you can avoid them.

Are you a Future Maker? We are compiling our annual list of the best young entrepreneurs in Australia. If you want to put your name, or someone else’s, forward, click here.