Learning from Failure
Failure is hardly a word to inspire or to give positive messages, and yet some of my biggest learnings have come from the failure of a business I had run for years and which came to a slow halt that lead to my personal bankruptcy and massive life shifts.
When you start any business it is with the hope that the venture will develop beyond the seedling idea, move through into a sapling and mature into a mighty oak which flowers each year and produces a harvest or crop that will continue to flourish.
With several businesses this has always been the case and the regularity of a harvest each year while tending the business is what allows so many small business owners to enjoy their life and contribute to what is important for them.
When my business collapsed I felt distraught at the personal failure, albeit tempered by the knowledge of what had lead to the closure. But when you stand in line for an interbview at the office of the government’s Official Receiver all they focus on is did you intend to do this or was it a product of various factors that include trading history, cashflow, payment performance of customers, delivery of suppliers, etc.
Going into the failure and analysing the processes that lead to it is a practical thing for you to do, as well as to be honest with yourself about the ways that such an outcome might or might not have been avoided. Certainly from my own angle there are ways of trading that I would no longer tolerate, or relationships with suppliers that would not be considered in my wildest nightmares, let along my dreams!
What is important is to know what happened and to move on, taking the valuable lessons learned with you for the next venture so that this is more protected from the start. We can make money or excuses, but it is difficult and unrealistic to expect to do both.
Nick Sturgeon is a small business owner who has benefitted from the experiences of success, failure and financial recovery. The author of “Small Business BIG Profit” published by FT Prentice Hall, Nick writes and speaks from the heart about Risk, Reward and the Power of Personal Enterprise. nick@smallbusinessbigprofit.co.uk
