As a business owner you are going to make mistakes. It kind of comes with the territory.
But it is how you use those mistakes that is the important part.
Mistakes are a fantastic learning tool. Now I know that no one wants to think about learning when you are knee deep in a stuff up. But once the drama has settled and you are back to smooth sailing, you can reflect on what happened and put practices in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Unfortunately, the world of owning a small business is quite perilous. Many, many ventures don’t make it past their first couple of years.
To prevent the same fate from happening to your business, you need to become friends with failure and learn from your mistakes.
What do I mean?
Have a read and find out.
Making Friends With Failure
This might seem like an odd concept, surely you don’t want to embrace the thing that could put your business under?
But failure itself is not the problem.
It Is how you deal with the failure that really matters. Nothing is a failure unless you learn from it. However, this can be the hard part.
If something doesn’t quite work out, it is very easy to curl up in a ball and rock yourself in the corner with tears rolling down your face.
As tempting as it might be at the time, this is not the path to take! Instead, make the failure work for you.
Admitting that something failed is the easy part, but coming to terms with what happened and why it did is the hard part.
There are some ways that can make failing and learning from your mistakes a little bit easier. They are:
Learn From Your Mistakes By…
Ditching The Ego
It Is great to have confidence in yourself. But, there is a difference between being confident and having a big ego! Letting your ego get in the way will stop you from being able to learn from your errors.
Don’t be too proud to admit your mistakes. We have all been there. Even the most successful entrepreneurs have stumbled along the way – the Marie Forleos, the Gary Vees and even Steve Jobs can’t get it right all the time!
So, ditch the ego and admit to the world you aren’t perfect. It will help you to overcome any little (or big) whoopsies far quicker!
Don’t Be Afraid
There is a very famous quote by Erin Hanson that pretty much sums up why you shouldn’t let the fear of failure hold you back…
“What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?”
If you are too scared to try anything, then nothing will happen. It is better to try and not quite get there then it is to not try at all.
Make Your Business About Your Clients
Your business is not about you. It is about your clients and how you can help them to solve all their problems. Thinking you know what they need without actually checking, points back to the ego thing.
If you listen to your clients, take their feedback on board and implement it in your business, then there is less of a chance of failure. That’s not to say that it won’t happen, but at least you know that you will be on the right path.
Understand Failure Isn’t Permanent
Sure, mistakes will happen. They might have the potential to break you… but only if you let them.
You are in control of how a failure will impact your business.
One small failure does not have to mean the total failure of your business. If you can solve the problem and stop it from happening again, then you succeed.
If you can’t do that or choose not to, then that is when failure happens.
Think of mistakes as a little bump in the road. They don’t have to be the end of your journey, simply a little hurdle to get over and then you can continue forward.
Part of the way to minimise the risk of failure is to have a solid marketing strategy. If you need help getting yours into place, then get in touch with me here at The Marketing Baker.