How To Overcome Business Failure

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford.

Failure is not a pleasant feeling.  In fact, it makes you feel like you are being crushed with no escape whatsoever, but if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, this is a feeling to which you must get accustomed.  You will be surprised to know, 20 % of the startups fail even before a year and 50 % before reaching the 5 year mark. As an entrepreneur, you must know, not everything in your business will go according to plan.  Your odds of failure are much higher than your odds of success. 

However, failure is not the end of the world.  Your success in life and in business will be determined by how you deal with those unpleasant failures.  Keep reading to find how you can encourage yourself to start again after a failure.

How to overcome business failure

1) Don’t be too harsh on yourself

Entrepreneurs, especially first timers, tend to blame themselves completely for their failures.  As you know by now, entrepreneurship is a risky process and here, everything does not go as planned.  Everyone makes mistakes and it is these mistakes which make you stronger and better in the future. One failure does not mean you are not capable, so disassociate the failure from you as a person.  Blaming yourself and going too harsh on yourself will make it even harder for you to overcome failure. 

2) Sort out your finances

The first thing you should do after facing a failure is to sort out your finances as you can no longer depend on your business as a source of income.  Even if you had a good amount of money in your savings, you might lose it all due to the failure of your business. So, the best thing to do is to find a new source of income which can keep you going till you are back on track.  You can pull a favour from anyone in your professional network for a job or find one for yourself. 

Once you have a stable job, you will have income to pay off your debts and buy yourself some time to figure out what you are going to do next.

3) Keep your emotions in check

To see your business fail after investing your heart and soul into it can be emotionally and mentally draining, but if you let these emotions drive you, you are bound to fail again.  Do not take any decision out of anger or fear and any other emotions you may face due to the failure. In the nick of the moment, you may feel like giving it all up, selling your business or trying a new idea then and there.  No matter what you feel, you must wait. Give yourself some time to heal and get your emotions in check, only then move on to take important decisions.  

4) Evaluate your failure

As you spend time with yourself everyday, try and analyze your failure.  There are many reasons why a business fails, so it is very important to understand all of them.  Go back and look at your initial business plan, analyze what worked and what did not. If you have a mentor, which we recommend you should, talk to him/her.  A mentor can give you a clear understanding about your mistakes and can tell you what your next move should be.

 Analyzing your failure well can help you avoid making similar mistakes in the future. 

5) Rebuild yourself

Now, this is easier said than done.  To gather the courage to start again after failing is a challenge in itself, so take one step at a time.  Start by reading relevant books, updating your skill set and learning the new market scenario. After this, slowly start brainstorming for new business ideas and jot down all the potential ideas.  Also start making a business plan for ideas you think are scalable. Do not forget to reach out to your professional network if you need help at any stage. 

Failure is inevitable in life or in business.  Most of the successful people of whom you hear, failed at one point or the other.  Thomas Alva Edison, failed upto 10,000 times before he became one of the greatest inventors of all time.  J.K. Rowling’s books were rejected by several publishers and Evan Spiegel failed at 34 projects before coming up with Snapchat.  Look at the failures as opportunities to learn and move on in life.