Do You Know That Failures Don’t Define You?

I’d venture to say that every entrepreneur has experienced failure. It’s part of the landscape even for the most successful businesspeople.

This isn’t to say that our entire business ventures fail all the time. Far more often, particular marketing efforts or types of services just don’t take off. Sometimes the market changes and we cannot compete any more. Clients pivot in ways that exclude us from their needs. There certainly are occasions when projects fail, through missteps by us or circumstances beyond our control.

If you’ve conducted adequate market research that has verified needs for your solutions for a category of client prospects and you are qualified to serve them, you should be able to successfully market your business. This means you’re able to package, price, present and provide your services in ways that meet clients’ needs. Adjustments and adaptations always will be required to remain competitive. Yet, a total misread of the market or a big shift within it that no one could see coming might blow your entire business model out of the water. Such events certainly can lead to complete misses on marketing messaging.

A failure must be taken as a temporary setback. The lessons learned will be used with the next incarnation of that business or marketing effort. There could be instances when what seems like an unrecoverable failure actually is a sign that a solo business isn’t a great fit for you. That’s when your pivot may be to find the right partnership to establish, even if the business is different than what you tried alone.

Very often, the difference between those who ultimately succeed and those who give up is resiliency. It’s the ability to learn from failures and setbacks. They use that knowledge to set out in a different direction or use the experience in a positive way. Failures are information, feedback. They aren’t personal or professional indictments.

In fact, there may be ways to tell the story about a failure as part of a marketing case. How did you turn around what wasn’t working with an effort or project into a winning reboot? This reflects how you respond to a negative situation through skilled analysis, resourcefulness and a commitment to success.

Self-employment is a journey of course adjustments while conducting your business. As a nimble solopreneur or microbusiness owner, you’re positioned to experiment continuously and aggressively. Succeed or fail fast. Failing fast means that you don’t sink your business by sticking with an unsuccessful effort too long. There should be a point where you can step back, evaluate what you’re doing and decide if it makes business sense to proceed longer, make adjustments or ditch the effort.

There’s no magical formula for determining which action to take. I suggest that you examine milestones and make a thoughtful business case for which path to choose. Failing or encountering setbacks isn’t fun. It’s easy to become frustrated and wonder if you’ll find the right formula to build a sustainable business and marketing platform in the years ahead.

However, with resiliency you can navigate your way through setbacks to end up accomplishing great things. Be pragmatic. Prepare, strategize, act, succeed or fail, learn, move forward with improvements, and repeat. This is the path to coping with failures as best you can, so you can focus on building the business you envision. Imagine the benefits of incorporating this attitude in your marketing messages.

Excerpt from Smart Marketing for Solopreneurs and Microbusinesses by Douglas Freeman, available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GV55XJR?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_BR83A5H13WK2G85TV3BQ_1

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