Mistakes and experience are the best teachers. Having said that, it’s better to learn from others’ mistakes and not yours. That will save you a lot of time and energy in the future. As you may already know, many businesses shut down in the first five years of operation. Some of them re-attempt to operate it but fail in doing so. What can we learn from their failure? What can we deduct from their study cases, so we may succeed where they haven’t?
My name is Ofir Bar, an investor with over twenty years of experience. Since I’m especially interested in entrepreneurship and innovation, studying intriguing entrepreneurial efforts is only natural to me. Please allow me to share my insights with you. I hope they’ll help you to manage a crisis if one occurs.
Recognize the consequences
Though vastly different, losing one’s business often leads the entrepreneur to go through the five stages of grief. It starts with denial. The business owner may try to force their business back up on its feet. However, efforts for reviving a failing business right away rarely succeed and bring with them even further losses of funds, precious time, and resources.
Right after that comes anger. It may be pointed at partners, employees, other people, or the situation that may have caused this failure. Looking for someone to blame always leads to an even bigger bitter disappointment. Those who target their anger at themselves are also not contributing to their entrepreneurial future: They forget that they can’t be aware of everything all the time. Being angry at your failure only makes it worse because you are not open to learning from your mistakes.
Feeling grief about the collapse of one’s business is only natural. However, with some mental training, this feeling can be diminished, minimizing the damage inflicted by denial and anger. Feeling grateful for the good things and lessons that the former attempt brought with it, and understanding that nothing lasts forever, may well prepare you for the worst-case scenario. If that happens, even if your business fails, you’ll quickly be able to stand back up on your feet.
Build a plan according to your insights
If an entrepreneur feels their last entrepreneurial attempt failed due to some external reason, they may conduct the next attempt in exactly the same manner they did last time. Too bad. As mentioned before, blame doesn’t help you learn: Acceptance does. In order to do it better next time, ask yourself what went wrong, and then plan how you are going to fix it. Take your time and don’t hurry – hasting will only backfire on you. After that, consult with your partners to brainstorm and plan ahead.
Initially, find out whether your beaten-down business even has the potential you thought it had. Maybe you’ll find that there’s not enough of it. In this case, you may want to consider finding another idea for a future business. Knowing when to let go is one of the most important qualities an entrepreneur can master. Believe me, learning how to do it right will always be a great tool.
Don’t let emotions maneuver you
It’s not easy to recover from a failed entrepreneurial effort. Establishing a business comes with many aspirations, hopes, and emotions. However, it’s a bad idea to let your feelings control you when you’re trying to get back on your feet and return to the entrepreneurial pitch. In order to do it well, you may need to take some time off to reflect on past events, or even leave your entrepreneurial aspirations aside for a while. Trust me, after taking a small break, you’ll most likely storm back to business with greater hunger. Also, if you follow my advice in this post, I believe you’ll be much more durable business-wise when doing so.
