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Success Advice

5 Steps To Turning Failure Into Business Success

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When you start a business you aren’t guaranteed success. But you can be sure that failure will happen, usually sooner rather than later. A lot of people give up at the first failure, some make it through two or three. They don’t believe this simple fact: failure is the catapult which will launch them to their greatest success.

Any experienced entrepreneur will happily let you know that without failure you will never have real success. So it’s time to not just embrace failure, but make it your friend.

Here are 5 steps to turn your big failures into even bigger successes:

1. Take time to grieve

Perhaps you just lost an important client. Maybe you invested months or years into an idea, only to discover that the market just didn’t see your vision. Possibly a business partner left you hanging.

No matter the cause when you have a failure it is an emotional event. Take a little time to let it go. This is a loss and grief is natural. So give yourself a day or even several to get over the fact that things won’t work out as you planned. Once you’ve grieved you are psychologically ready to take steps in another direction. Not grieving may leave you with emotional baggage that will hold you back later.

 

2. Do a post mortem

After grieving take time to discover exactly what went wrong. Perhaps there was a miscommunication with the client. It could be there wasn’t sufficient market research. Even a lack of a proper contract can sour a potentially lucrative deal.

The post mortem shows you why things fell apart. Missing this step is a huge error. Here experience is converted to wisdom. Remember, if you don’t learn from the failure then you’ll likely repeat it.

“When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.” – Mary Kay Ash 

3. Move ahead quickly

After grieving and the post mortem, it’s very important to get back into the game. Meet with a mastermind group and hammer out a better plan. Brainstorm new product ideas or ways to grow your customer base. Don’t wait.

Just as grief is necessary to let go of the failure, moving ahead quickly will give you the confidence that you can still have the success you deserve. Mindset is the key. Action precedes emotion. Take action to get yourself in the right place mentally.

 

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4. Adjust on the fly

Many entrepreneurs fail because they either didn’t have a plan or they rigidly clung to a plan that was clearly not working. It’s a lot easier to adjust course while in motion rather than starting from scratch.

Once things are ramping back up take time to talk to customers, partners and mentors. Find out from them how it looks from their perspective. Make adjustments based on clear and logical feedback. Discovering and correcting small errors now will steer you more clearly toward your destination of success.

 

5. Fear not and fail more

Failure tends to make us more risk averse. Fear creeps in and tries to convince us to play small. Don’t let that happen. Once you know what caused the failure in the past then you can avoid it and move forward.

Other failures may yet be in the future, but each one will teach you more about your business, more about relationships and more about yourself. Take risks and accept failure as a welcome companion on the path to success.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

Most new businesses fail because the business owner simply quits trying. It is the rare person who will push through, repeatedly stepping up to the line to start again. Your success depends on many factors, but perhaps the most important is your ability to learn from and build on failure.

You will have failures. They are unavoidable. But if you grieve briefly, do a post mortem, move ahead quickly, adjust on the fly and keep hustling despite fear then success will be inevitable. Don’t hold back, go all in and when failure comes just smile a bit. Failure without quitting is the greatest sign of your success to come.

Which one of these is your biggest setback and why? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

I help people develop amazing relationships and love what they do every day. I'm a writer, speaker and coach and you can read my articles on great sites such as the Huffington Post, Addicted2Success, the Good Men Project and Lifehack. Happiness in life and passion in your work are my goals. Meet me at TroyStoneking.com and Troy Stoneking on Facebook.

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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Creating legal boundaries
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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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