Business

– by guest author Derek Goodman of Inbizability.

Photo credit: Unsplash

Entrepreneurship is a career founded on passion and risk-taking. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes the business you believed in still didn’t take off. Seeing a cherished idea fail can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be the end of your entrepreneurial career. The important part is not the failure — it’s what you can learn from it.

You can use this experience to foster a better, more sustainable business in the future.  Portfolio Management Group Consulting offers guidance on how to recover from business failure, get up and dust yourself off and use it to push your next venture forward, or, if contacted when the warning signs appear, possibly prevent a complete disaster.

Reflect on What Went Wrong

The immediate wake of business failure is a great time to write out what went wrong. As time goes on, more things may occur to you, so keep this information in a notebook or file you can easily access down the line. This practice is a way to acknowledge mistakes so you can avoid them in the future.

Get Professional Input

In addition to your own reflections about what went wrong with your business, it’s worthwhile to reach out to a professional to get their input. An outside perspective can be absolutely invaluable for assessing what went wrong with a small business.

Business strategists can help you go over financial choices, marketing moves, and other business decisions you made along the way. Then, together, you can reflect on what did and didn’t work, and even do some thought experiments as to how what didn’t work could have been better managed. Other input worth considering, especially if you’re struggling mentally and emotionally on a day-to-day basis, is speaking with a professional grief counselor. Just having someone impartial to listen goes a long way.

Give Yourself Permission to Grieve

Finally, give yourself time and permission to grieve the business that failed. Losing a business is a major blow that can impact you in a variety of ways. In addition to the money you may have lost, many business owners struggle with feelings of sadness for their employees, customers and community after a business goes under. The more involved you were with community events and culture, the more likely this is to be part of your grieving process. There’s also the damage that business failure causes to your pride. Losing a business doesn’t mean you’re not capable of future success, but BusinessCollective notes that you may have to navigate feelings of inadequacy or signs of imposter syndrome.

Acknowledging that these feelings are complicated and, according to TIME, learning how to sit beside them can give you far more peace than trying to ignore them. Moreover, this grieving process allows you to enter your next entrepreneurial venture without a lot of baggage holding you back. 

Consider a Short Getaway

 Finally, while we have all heard this before, it might be wise to take a little time to yourself. Yes, you can do this at home, but different surroundings will likely prove beneficial, and this doesn’t have to be thousands of miles away. It can even be in a nearby town. The point is to get away. Find an affordable vacation rental that’s in the perfect location for what you need. Whether it’s right on the beach, close to the marina, or somewhere secluded. Pack only the essentials and consider unplugging and leaving the laptop at your office.

Failure is a normal part of becoming a business owner, and it doesn’t have to be the end of your journey. If you’re hoping to pick up the pieces and create a new business down the road, we hope this article helps you to process the past so you can look toward the future.

If your business is ready to shut its doors or you already have, there is still hope.  Contact Portfolio Management Group Consulting today for a no-cost obligation.  We can help.