BUSINESS/FINANCE
Failure As an Option!
Putting together a business plan, working on an idea then seeing it all fail is certainly not something easy to deal with but way more common than you may think. It is estimated that in the United States 8 out of 10 businesses end up failing, according to recent research from Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy. The good news is that a turnaround following an entrepreneur disaster tends to be much more successful the second time around for a very simple reason. Successful people get what they want by making mistakes, learning from them, getting up and doing it all again until they get it right. As the famous proverb says, "Fall down seven times, stand up eight,” it’s more about our attitude towards failure welcoming it and retrying.
Your idea didn't work out? First of all, accept it!
You have probably heard someone say that to know “if a business idea will evolve, you should just stop wasting time and implement it.” Indeed, that makes sense based on the history of many organizations. For example, just look at some tech companies that once were garage-startups and today are the most successful. The risks involved in the journey of an endeavor are numerous just as the lessons learned that come from it. First, if it doesn’t work, accept it. That’s when you will start analyzing the mistakes you should not repeat, and their outcomes will become insightful market analysis for you in the future.
“As a serial entrepreneur and 5x founder of numerous consumer brands, I have started several different businesses in various industries, but I would be lying if I said I’ve never been afraid of failing. Now, though, I see failure has been essential for my businesses because it usually makes me improve my operations. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you should also see an opportunity out of those failed outcomes,” says Rich Heruska, Accelerator director at Tampa Bay Wave. Rich was the co-founder of Home Discovery, which grew into a 300-person full-service, real estate tech company producing over $15 million in annual revenues and eventually was affected by the real estate crash over 10 years ago. Most recently, Heruska sold his growing chain of family recreation centers, AirHeads Trampoline Arena, to an entertainment holding company.
Your next Big Break
Have you also thought that getting in touch with people you will meet or have met on the way can also lead to new opportunities and, who knows, another project? It is not hard to read these success stories on social media. Exchanging knowledge with those who have been in your shoes will result in different perspectives and solutions for the same problems you have been through or may face in the future.
“Being able to count on suppliers I met with along the way in some of my businesses that failed led me to new partnerships that I wouldn’t be able to come up with alone. When you fail, you’re prompted to understand the journey of your customer to your product. This is a great place for improvement and coming up with new ideas", says Saravana Pat Bhava, founder and CEO of Kid.io & PikMyKid.com
Just as anything in life, being an entrepreneur requires perseverance and learning from your mistakes. Your next move can be your worse failure. But it can also be your lucky strike. You will never know until you try it out.
Link to the data cited: www.sba.gov (8 out of 10 business fail)
Dr. Karyn Mathura-Arthur is an agile implementation leader with experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Process Improvement, Business Transformation, Process Engineering and Organizational Change Management across multiple industries (banking, insurance, healthcare, telecom, government, retail, etc.). For comments and suggestions, email [email protected]