3 Ways to Trade Your Business Failures for Success

My husband’s favorite quote to remind me of as an entrepreneur is, “There are no failures, only learning.”

In business, it can be difficult to separate ourselves from our failures, let alone see them as a positive thing. The truth is, if you’re trying to improve your entrepreneurial mindset you have to realize without each and every failure, you wouldn’t learn what is so vital to make it to success.

In the tough moments when we feel like what we put out into the world failed, there are a lot of emotional responses that can get in the way of progress. Instead, when we realize that our greatest tool is the lesson that each failure provides, an important shift begins to take place. I’m talking about the shift from wanting to greet each failure with a string of expletives to literally thanking God for each time something didn’t work out.

How do you embrace that same shift in your own entrepreneurial mindset and business?

Even more so, how do you let go of the disappointment (and often shame) that is associated with failure?

Here are 3 ways I teach small business clients to embrace failures in order to get to the other side to see success in their business. And yes, I absolutely do this myself time and time again. (What? You thought this was just about you? Girl, I’m absolutely reminding myself of these exact things some days!)

So deep breathe, let’s talk about it.

Stop taking small business failures personally.

If reading that last sentence made you roll your eyes, don’t worry I understand. When we put so much of ourselves into our work, it can feel impossible not to link our self worth with the wins and losses that our business experiences.

Start finding small ways to remind yourself that you are more than what you do to make money and your business is lucky to have you, not be you. When something doesn’t pan out or yield the results you had hoped for, that’s not a reflection on who you are as a person, it’s just the nature of business. Some ideas and offers are going to be successful while others fall flat and provide you with a chance to move forward with new knowledge.

At the end of the day, it’s just business. Failures are a huge part of running a business of any size but from experience, I’ll go out on a limb and say even more so for small independent businesses.

Treat each failure as a data source.

Every single negative piece of feedback, failed launch, poor sales metric – all of it can be a resource in building the success you are working towards afterwards. In fact, keeping your failures more black and white and data-based allows for that emotional connection to begin to soften.

Let’s look at a promotion that you were offering that nobody took advantage of. Perhaps it was the timing of your marketing or the actual offer itself that wasn’t aligned with what your clientele found valuable? Create a poll for your existing email list or social media story to ask opinions that you can use to help guide which promotion to use next time. Often you may find you want to push a failure behind you, but locating the weak link behind it will help give you the information you need to avoid it next time and implement better processes.

Filter new ideas through your failures.

If you want to grow your small business and elevate your brand, you can’t be afraid to get up close and personal with each of your failures. Play Detective Small Business Betty and get that magnifying glass out! As you come up with ideas for marketing, new products and services, pricing and promotions and other aspects of your job, your failures can guide you.

Sometimes the excitement of a new idea makes us want to just roll right in, but you have to train your entrepreneurial mindset to hit the pause button and look deeper for the important parts. Think about what your success metric looks like for each idea and if it reminds you of things you’ve implemented previously. Compare it to any lessons you may have learned the last time you rolled something similar out. What will you do differently with this idea? What will you make sure not to do?

Don’t for a second think it’s easy for everyone else.

It’s easy to say “failures can be lessons” but the trick is to authentically answer the tough questions and help them guide your decisions and next steps. Don’t let shame from previous failures hold you back from what’s meant for you. Fix your entrepreneurial mindset towards success using every little thing that could have gone better the last time, to help pave a smoother path this time.

Overcoming your mindset struggles as an entrepreneur is one of the biggest benefits to being part of a community that understands the pressure and can show you how to come out on the other side. If you’re craving support as you navigate both failures and success as a small business, come join us inside Empowered for Profit Collective and find your biz besties to lean on. I promise, you will find exactly what you’re looking for inside! You can join the waitlist HERE for a first look and special promos for the next enrollment!