6 Guidelines on How to Deal with Failure as an Entrepreneur

If you’re an entrepreneur, failure is the name of the game. You need to fail, frequently, to figure out what’s working and what’s not. Without failure, you’re not taking risks, and entrepreneurship is all about embracing risks and pushing forward.

However, embracing failure doesn’t mean not looking out for the success of your business or succumbing to negative mindsets. Read on to learn our top tips on how to deal with failure and continue making strides to accomplish your goals.

1. Look to the Future

Are you familiar with the phrase “rolling with the punches?” In order to do so when you meet failure, you need to have your eyes on what’s ahead. The best way to do that is to have a plan and a vision for the future.

Write down all of your concrete goals for the future, even if right now they seem out of the question. Ask yourself specific questions such as where you want your business to be next year, what products or services you want to offer, and how you want to differentiate yourself from competitors.

Only through doing this will you be able to create an actionable strategy to accomplish your goals. You’ll be able to conduct research and dive into the data. And when failure inevitably comes, you’ll have that strategy in hand to keep you on track.

2. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a review of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You need to be able to learn from your failures and face your shortcomings in order for it to be a valuable experience.

By documenting the positives of strengths and opportunities as well as the negatives of weaknesses and threats, you’ll begin to have a concrete idea of where you’re coming up short. Moreover, you’ll be able to generate ideas on how you can leverage your strengths and opportunities to overcome your weaknesses.

3. Grit

Even if you’re a natural at your niche, if you don’t have a belief in yourself, grit, and determination, you’ll be prone to succumbing to your failures and believing that you just don’t have what it takes. Even though this isn’t true, you’ll believe it.

Grit is an essential trait that keeps you floating. The author Caroline Adams Miller defines grit as “the passionate pursuit of hard goals that awes and inspires you and others to become better people, flourish emotionally, take positive risks, and live your best life.”

Grit is a belief that you have a purpose. This helps you push through setbacks because you know that they’re only temporary. Developing grit is essentially your defense against failure.

4. Focus on Your Customers

Developing authentic relationships with your customers is the key to your business’s success. Not only does a clear focus on your customers keep you grounded when failure arises, but you’ll also be less prone to failure with a customer-first mindset.

Focusing on creating quality content, services, products, and engagement with your customers will retain current ones and grow your customer base over time. If you’re consistently engaging with customers and anticipating they’re needs, you’ll be able to avoid potential pitfalls and improve your business’s offering through their feedback.

5. Decompress

You’re only human. Even if you’re aware that failure is to be expected and can lead to positive results, allow yourself to experience the feelings that come with not living up to the expectations and goals you’ve set. Give yourself at least 24 hours to really wallow in it – just like grief, you need this time to really process it.

Remember that building a business is a huge undertaking that demands your constant focus, time, and dedication. Just like an important appointment, schedule out portions of your day, week, or month that belong to you.

Don’t try to punish yourself by denying your needs and desires. If you want to know more self-improvement mistakes that can be sabotaging your growth, check out this article.

Recognize your hard work and reward yourself. You’ll find that with a consistent insistence on being good to yourself, your resilience will grow and you’ll be able to depersonalize yourself from your failures and bounce back.

6. Plan for Failure

Since you know that failure is inevitable, plan for it! Good negotiators know that deals can fall through all the time; however, they have a “plan b” in place that enables them to still come up ahead even if their initial offer was turned down. Use this knowledge to your advantage and incorporate the same strategy with your business.

Have another project ready if you don’t accomplish your first one. Before you even begin projects, plan a worst-case scenario meeting where you brainstorm everything that could go wrong.

Although you may think that this will increase your stress, research shows that you’ll be more mentally equipped for the stress that will arise. However, you’ll also have a greater chance of success. It’s a win-win.

How to Deal with Failure: All About Acceptance

According to a Harvard report, it’s estimated that 95% of all startups will fail. By accepting this reality, you’ll come to realize that failure is a natural part of being an entrepreneur. Successful businesses know how to deal with failure: they accept failure, learn from it, and move on – even if that means they need to drastically change their business plans and offerings.

Want to learn more secrets that are key to your entrepreneurial success? Keep reading our blog for more tips and strategies!