There’s no successful entrepreneur today that hasn’t faced business failures one way or the other. Failure is inevitable and is hugely impactful. It can make or break you. In the end, your life’s narrative is entirely up to you. Now, will your story be about how you almost reached the top and failed? Or will it be about how you pick yourself up after a devastating loss and succeed?
The answer to that question is critical. Because if you don’t believe you can bounce back, most likely, you won’t. But if you’re ready to pull yourself together and try once more, here are some ways to overcome business failures.
Go back to the drawing board.
Awesome ways to overcome business failures
It’s time to change what didn’t work for you before. Go back to the drawing board. Plan your goals again. Create a new business plan, a new map that you will follow for the next years ahead.
First, evaluate your current situation. Ask yourself, “What are the things that led to my downfall? What are the changes I have to make? What is the next step? What are my new goals? Am I truly happy in what I am trying to accomplish before?”
Use SWOT analysis to recognize new opportunities
SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a useful tool to evaluate your business’s internal and external features. Its purpose is to identify the things that are working and not, and help you decide on the things you have to prioritize or change. The components of this analysis are the following:
Strengths. These are the beneficial internal factors in your business.
Weakness. These are the disadvantageous internal factors in your business. You may either eliminate them or decide to develop them more by making appropriate adjustments in your business.
Opportunities. These are the external factors that can provide excellent prospects in your business.
Threats. These are the external factors that pose potential damage to your business.
In creating new goals, you may use the SMART goal-setting method to keep yourself focused and ensure that you’re leveling your expectation to minimize future business failures. It involves formulating goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
Make changes in your lifestyle
After a disappointing turn in your career, you should not only make changes in your business; you should also focus on yourself more. For one, you’re the one calling the shots, and you can’t make notable decisions if you’re not taking care of your health.
Surround yourself with people that genuinely care about you and want you to succeed. Isolating yourself from the world will not only dim your spirits but also robs you of a chance to ask others for advice.
Perform activities that make you feel better and give your mind space to think. It may be in the form of exercising, meditation, spending time with your relatives and friends, or taking a vacation.
Embrace failure
From successful people like Colonel Sanders to Walt Disney, it proves that everyone fails at some point. And what matters is how you stand up again. No one has immunity against business failures. It’s one of the ingredients for success, so don’t dwell on it for too long.
Know that a failure does not represent the entirety of you. Don’t get strongly attached to losses as you will have a hard time handling it even more. Let go and embrace it instead. Maintain a forward-looking mindset, and don’t give up on the things that make you feel alive.
Failure is a great way to find new purpose or clarity; it opens a unique opportunity to answer the questions you were afraid of answering before. It allows you to figure out the blind spots of your then venture and provide you with the maturity you will need along the way.
Or maybe you can see it as a sign to seek another adventure, perhaps your heart is not really in it before, and that’s the reason why it failed.
Rest, recover, and reprisal
If you find yourself in deep trouble, business failures, or a major setback, remember not to reprise your situation. Working rigidly rough while your business is failing will only lead to more losses. It’s okay to rest and recover from your losses before making a comeback. Besides, giving yourself a rest will put you on the right perspective on what went wrong.
Adopt a forward-thinking attitude and write new goals and action plans conducive to your situation. Now that you know your pitfalls, you can best avoid that from happening by setting new objectives for success.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What went wrong?
- Why and how were you able to arrive at your setbacks?
- What are the individual factors that led you here?
- What are the solutions to these considerations?
- How can you avoid it from happening again?
Prepare for the inevitable
They said to expect the unexpected, but how do you do that exactly? For instance, one partner business we know decided to create a new marketing plan after being hit by a storm surge. At first, they cater to physical goods in their store, afterward, they decided to put up an online store and decide to automate their production partner outside the country – a dropshipping business.
So, whenever a storm, earthquake, or any catastrophically-induced event, they continue with their automated dropshipping business online and earn profits while they sleep.
During this pandemic, their main business decided to be put on a halt, but they did open an online consultancy firm and helped other businesses transfer their assets online. So, it’s all about resilience, grit, and foresight to prepare for the inevitable.
