Wondering how to recover after a business failure? Whether it’s your first time as an entrepreneur or your nth time; failing any venture is never easy to accept. However, the proper mindset and planning can help you get back on your feet quicker and with more confidence than before.
Don’t Take Things Personally
One of the things you should remember is to not take a business failure personally. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. It’s your business that failed, not you as a person. The business failing is not all your fault. After all, there are alway circumstances you can’t control and other people involved. These people have their own reasons for making the decisions they did. So don’t play the blame-game either.
However, you should still take care of your personal needs at this time. Perhaps you need some time alone to process your feelings. If you need to cry your heart out, just do it. Give yourself permission to express your grief, your disappointment or frustrations. But set a time limit for yourself and don’t dwell on the negative emotions too much. Once you start feeling better, then you can go back to analyze things with a more objective point of view. Take the time and effort to properly recover from a business failure. Don’t rush it.
Reflect on The Lessons
A business failure is always an opportunity to reflect and learn. It helps to write down a list of what was good about the experience and what was bad. Then figure out where errors were made and how it lead to the business failing. What did you lack in starting your business? Do you need to get yourself your own dream team instead of relying solely on your self?
An honest review like this should help you identify the gaps in your previous plan. You can see the weak elements that need more support or need to be replaced with something better. You will also get to know yourself better. This will help you figure out your own decision-making process and the habits and perspectives you had that you need to change so you can make better decisions in the future. Essentially, you need to recover your personal confidence so you can work on your business much better.
Take Things A Step at A Time
Take the time to breathe and take things slowly. Recovering from any kind of loss, whether personal or business, should never be done in a hurry. Especially for beginner entrepreneurs, it is best to take the time to rebuild your resources and your own confidence before jumping right away into your next business venture. Unless you already had a Plan B in mind if Plan A failed. It would be great if every entrepreneur had a plan on how to recover from a business failure. But each failure is different and it is hard to prepare for all eventualities.
The usual results are always to be expected though. A business failure usually entails lack as well as loss of funds. So you need to decide whether you need to go back to being an employee for a while to rebuild your funds again. Many people go from employee to freelancer and back again. This is a common practice nowadays and nothing to be embarrassed about. The important thing is that you don’t quit your dream of having your own business. You’re just getting ready to build it up again.
Make A Better Plan
Failure is always an opportunity for learning. It wipes the slate clean so you can start again; this time with a better, stronger mindset and more courage to try something new. This means that you are now able to come up with a better plan for your business. Or your time as an employee may have helped you develop new passions and interests that you want to turn into a business. You may realize that your previous business plan is not what you truly wanted to do.
With the lessons you took away from your first business attempt and better knowledge of yourself; you are now more ready to take on a new endeavor or continue what you started with a better strategy. You can even create a new goal for your self and your business.
An entrepreneur should not be afraid to fail. Instead, you should always be excited to unleash the genius in you, and give your best at whatever you do. Don’t let failures bring you down. Let them be the fuel that fires your engines to get closer to your success.
Feature Image: Original Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash.
