An estimated 90% of new startups fail. As an entrepreneur, this probably doesn’t sound like a motivating statistic. But what causes startups to fail? At what point in the business cycle does this happen? How can you prevent it from being a complete failure and learn from it? Keep reading to learn strategies on how to deal with failure as an entrepreneur.
Plan for Failure
It may sound strange to plan for failure, but it is an important part of the business world and the more prepared you are, the better you can navigate the situation in the future. This preparation can come in many different forms.
Financially planning for a potential failure can allow your business to have the savings to deal with a financial struggle or setback. Businesses that run out of funding sometimes have no choice but to close. Having savings for this type of situation will allow the business to continue moving forward.
Gaining an understanding of the top reasons that failure occurs for entrepreneurs can be a useful planning tool as well. Becoming aware of the typical issues that can cause failure will help you be aware of them for your business.
Get a Support System
A strong support system is extremely important to both success and failure in business. Having a group of people that believe in your vision and support what you are trying to accomplish is vital.
Your support system should be a variety. People you know both on a personal and professional level. The ones that know you on a personal level will help you realize that you can’t take every business failure in a personal way. Your professional mentors and connections will help share their experiences with failure and how they navigated through it.
Seeking advice and support from the people in this group will help you get through the tough times of starting and running a business. These are the people you will want to celebrate the successes with as well.
Learn About Failure
Becoming familiar with failure and its many forms can help you better understand why it is happening in your situation. Some of the highest-regarded entrepreneurs in the world were once fired from jobs or had to repeatedly overcome failures to get to the top of their field. They learned about what didn’t work and practiced what did.
While there is an abundance of reading on business growth that you can do, the same effort should go toward learning about why and how businesses and people fail. Reaching out to people that you admire in business and asking them about their failures could be a way to continue learning as well.
Don’t Spend Too Much Time on It
Never get too high or too low.
This is a difficult thing to practice because it is human nature to get excited when things are going well and discouraged when things are not going the way we expect. Failure happens but it doesn’t last forever. Accepting it and moving on to take action steps will prevent you from dwelling on a negative position for your business.
Practicing self-awareness as an entrepreneur can keep you grounded in these situations and take failure less harshly as a result. If you find yourself dwelling on a failure, you have to figure out a way to turn it into a positive and use it as a building block.
Re-Energize Yourself
You may have lost thousands of dollars. Your product or service may be a complete failure. You may not have secured the business partnership you were striving for.
These situations can be tough and moving on can be slow. Re-energizing yourself can help you keep a level-head and get the work done that you need in order to move forward.
This can be as simple as changing your routine, trying a new hobby, exercising, or just spending some time outside and away from your work. It can be too easy to consume yourself with fixing a failure that you forget to care for yourself and fuel yourself with the energy needed to move your business forward in a positive way.
Get Started Today
Failure is common in business. You are not alone, but you don’t need to be defined by it either. Learn from what is not working and practice more of what is successful for your unique situation.
Start taking action today. Open an additional savings. Create scenarios of potential failures for your business and then come up with realistic solutions for those failures. Speak with others in your industry and discuss the biggest issues they are currently facing.
What are some other ways you know how to deal with failure as an entrepreneur? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
