The thrill of being an entrepreneur certainly has its ups and down.
On one hand your venture can pave the way to incredible profits and great success while the other has you coming up with nothing. These downfalls are a hard hit but a good lesson learned.
I’ve been there many times over the years.
I’ve:
· Successfully (and unsuccessfully) started an Ebay/Amazon business
· Successfully (and unsuccessfully) started a Web Development business
· Successfully (and unsuccessfully) started profitable websites
The work is hard but the payout is well worth it, no doubt.
Once you taste that success it does something weird to you … you get comfortable. Once you hit that level of comfort you lose your edge. The competition creeps in and sudden the rug is pulled from your feet and you’re down on your luck again.
But every great entrepreneur will go through this. The ones that pick themselves up after they have fallen are the ones that find real success.
This post is about that.
It’s about what you can do to build yourself up after having a failed business launch.
Part 1: Researching through inspiration
Inspiration will play a large role in entrepreneurship. You may have been inspired by stories of others’ success, which is why you got your start. In time you may have developed an ego, though, and developed a “holier than thou” type approach to your work. You were successful after all so why listen to others, right? And that was the point you started to slip.
My recommendation is that you go back to looking at these inspirational business-types. For me, that person was Patrick Byrne because he was able to make a huge success out of Overstock.com, stagnated a bit, but then got back on the pony with a big interest in Bitcoin. It shows that no matter high on top of the game we can be there are always moments when something will take you down a notch – but not letting yourself hit bottom is the key – which is why it’s always important to pick yourself up and go at it harder than ever. This is the type of inspiration you need in your life so go out there and find it!
Part 2: Trimming the fat
The second important thing I learned about what drags you down in business is what you can expect when you hear the words “a kid in a candy store”. Once you’re on a roll you begin to tack on additional projects because they feel fresh and invigorating. The unfortunate side effect is that they’re becoming a distraction from your main work and this will cause a decline in your success.
So next time you’re coming back up be sure to really assess whether you want to spend time working on a new project. Don’t feel as if you’ve “given up” if you decide to drop something mid-way because it’s better to cut your loss now than pulling everything else down with it because you’re too scatterbrained.
Part 3: Setting real goals
They always tell you to set realistic (but challenging) goals. The reason, as you could imagine, is that it helps to give yourself a roadmap in your projects. It also allows you to align your work so it builds momentum. One of the reasons why you may have failed was due in part to not setting tough goals or ones that are too far out of reach so you eventually became discouraged.
The key to achieving a goal (though it’ll depend on the person) comes down to sitting down long enough to find the ones that will yield the highest return, creating a timeline, setting rewards for reaching milestones, and dedicating yourself to the main activity that will bring you closer. If you have your goals in place then everything else will fall into place.
Part 4: Execution
With inspiration, distractions, and goals checked off the list the last thing you need to do is execute your plans. What probably happened when you dipped was that you hit a barrier. These barriers sometimes come in the form of not having the right skills, laziness on your end, or not reaching out to the right people.
To ensure you’re going to come back into your A-game you need to commit to hard work. You also need to associate yourself with experts in the field so they can aid your projects when you lack the skills or authority to reach your true audience. Keep pushing as hard as you can (by working with the best people you can find) and you’ll come out of that slump.
No doubt you will experience the ups and downs. Sometimes you can pick yourself up on your own but sometimes you need advice (like this) to light the fire. Take this information and run with it. It’s what has helped me rekindle the passion and drive for entrepreneurship. I believe it will help you too.
