Whatever may be the reports of the commercial agencies, it is poor management which causes the greatest percentage of business failures. Ill-luck - the unexpected crop failure or earthquake - may now and then wipe out a business, but mismanagement steadily and surely adds its enormous quota to the failure list.

Poor business management comes from lack of knowledge of the "how" of managerial methods. The man who does not know how to manage his business - or who does not get some one who knows how, to do it for him - is only baiting failure. Good management comes from an Intimate knowledge of a business, a knowledge of the principles of management and the ability and will to apply those principles.

Management is of two kinds, general and detail. A man may be a good general manager, and not know details. Another man may be an excellent detail manager, and still lack all knowledge necessary to general management. When a knowledge of general is combined with a knowledge of special management, then is seen a "captain of industry." These business leaders have been, by far the greater part, men who have the broad grasp of the big principles, and an intimate knowledge of the trade details of their proposition.

An illustration of good general management would be that of a man who has the broad grasp to know whether it would be feasible to run a railway from New York City to the Pacific coast. Such a man might not be able to swing a spike maul or tamp a tie, and yet possess a knowledge of general railway conditions which would enable him to manage a vast railway enterprise. The foreman of a construction gang on the other hand, would be obliged to know in detail all facts affecting construction; in order to be a competent manager he should be able to do everything which is required of his subordinates. In those super-rare cases where a manager has both general and special knowledge, the two kinds round out each other, making both better.

The opportunities which exist in the management field are outranked by perhaps only one other. Marketing a product - the ability to sell - commands at times a higher price in business than managerial ability. But either business management or sales ability commands - alike in direct salary returns or in the more indirect returns through increase in trade and profits - the most money to be made in business.

FINANCING A BUSINESS PROPOSITION

Money is the lifeblood of any business. An undersupply means under-development of the business; thinned down below a certain point, it means death. Whatever be the business, the first great factor to be reckoned with is financing the proposition; has it, or can it get money upon which to run?

The majority of businesses are underfinanced - not because they do not pay or because they afford a safe investment - but because the proprietor has not the time and sometimes has not the facility for financing his proposition.

There never was a time when financial backing was secured as easily as now. There never was such a vast amount of money available for legitimate financial purposes, as there is at the present time. How best to get it? is the question that every man in business is asking himself.

There are four ways - each having their various advantages - of getting money to finance a business. Each will be taken up in order.

The Cash Basis Plan. The first method of financing a business proposition is simplicity itself. It is that of financing it on a cash basis with your own funds or funds permanently in your trust. The percentage of business men who can do this is small indeed, perhaps less than one-tenth of one percent. But it is a method which many men have tried at least once in their business lite. Many men are trying it today, only to adopt other methods later.

When a man starts in business with the intention of financing himself either one of two condition exist. He either has sufficient funds to meet all contingencies or he has not. That is plain. The business man with sufficient funds who is financing himself has his problem as well as the man who is "wild-cutting." True, these problems are not disconcerting, but they are to be reckoned with.