Probably the most common thing that I hear regarding why businesses fail is because of a lack of attention to detail in the planning phase of the business. In a lot of cases it’s a total disregard for a plan at all. Many assume that talent will conquer all when in reality it does not.
I ran across a great video for any new business owners on how to set up their structure:
http://blogs.bnet.com/dogandpony/?p=133&tag=content;col1
The video features a gentleman by the name of Gregg Wind who is a CPA and partner at Wind, Bremer and Hockenberg. He goes over what kind of entity to set up and when. Another item that he brings up is in who to work with when setting your business up. This piece is critical as sometimes we want to cut corners when we are starting a business which is okay but there are some areas that you shouldn’t cut corners and getting your structure set up correctly is one of those areas.
The more disciplined you can be in the beginning the better off you will be in the long run as your business grows.