Failing regularly whilst still succeeding as a small business owner sounds paradoxical, right? How can you build a successful small business if you are spending all your time overcoming your most recent mistakes? The truth is, learning to embrace failure is one of the savviest moves you can make as a business entrepreneur. Want to know why? Check out the following five reasons small business owners should fail more.
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1. Failing regularly is a sign of expansion. If you are not making mistakes as you build your business, then you are not trying hard enough. Very few businesses are overnight successes and even fewer small business owners magically know what they are doing, especially at the start. If you are making mistakes, at the very least, it shows you are trying different things and getting outside your comfort zone. Stop looking at your failures as shortcomings, and instead embrace them as a sign you are trying new things.
2. Failures mean you are striving to attain your goals. Small business owners who have given up on their dream of building a profitable company do not tend to take chances. They are complacent and just take whatever life sends their way. If you are reaching for success, you are bound to make mistakes as you attempt to achieve your goals. If you have stopped making mistakes as a small business owner, odds are you are not actively pursuing bigger and better goals for your life and business.
3. Mistakes are an investment in your future. If you're willing to analyse your decision-making processes then you'll be thinking about actions you could have taken to achieve a different outcome. Small business entrepreneurs with the ability to dissect their missteps often become mentors who share their growth stories with other entrepreneurs. Read any book by any successful entrepreneur. They have regularly had to backtrack and pivot on their road to success. Wrap your mind around becoming a small business entrepreneur who helps teach others and your mistakes will become a badge of honour you can share.
4. It's a 'rite of passage'. Everyone makes errors of judgement - nobody is perfect. There's no book of instructions advising you how not to make mistakes. Failure is a necessary step on your path toward business success. Learn to use your missteps as inspiration to try harder and work smarter. Only then will you begin to see your troubles were not career ending, but just small speed bumps on your journey towards achieving your dreams.
5. Failures are a learning opportunity. Small business failures can also be a trigger to revisit and revise your business growth strategy. It is easy to become overwhelmed by all your responsibilities as a small business owner. Taking a step back and analysing your growth strategy might be the last thing you want to do. When you do stumble though, look at your mistake as an opportunity to regroup, rearrange priorities, and recharge your emotional energy stores.
"I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work."
- Thomas Edison
The path to business success is never smooth nor is it straight. Once you start taking a strategic approach to failure as a small business owner, you will realise that business mistakes are rarely 'fatal'. They are just a part of the whole package that is small business.
Our free e-book Release has many more tips on how to reduce the overwhelm that stifles business growth.
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