how to fail in business and still succeed

Failure can be weird.

None of us want to fail.  Not in business.  Not in relationships.  And certainly not in life.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be successful.

But both success and failure are relative.  And success certainly doesn’t happen overnight.  Lots of people fail in business.

there are so many example of people who fail in business

Bill Gates’s first business Traf-O-Data went nowhere. He dropped out of Harvard. Yet, he then started Microsoft and went on to became the world’s richest man for 17 years and has used his foundation as a vehicle to improve people’s health, life people out of extreme poverty, and have access to opportunities to succeed in school.

Reshma Saujani graduated from Yale Law School, but only after having applied 3 times.  She ran for US Congress, and lost.  She then used her campaign experience to launch the not-for-profit Girls Who Code.  She’s reached over 3,000 girls since 2012 and has ambitious aims to reach 1 million by 2020.

Mark Cuban failed as a carpenter, a cook, and as a waiter before founding Broadcast.com and selling it to Yahoo for $1.7 billion.

Oprah Winfrey’s first boss told her that she was ‘not right for television’.  She’s gone on to become the best-paid female in the entertainment industry and remains the richest self-made woman.  She also focuses on philanthropy, volunteerism, and making a difference in the world.

I can go on and on telling you about wildly successful entrepreneurs who tasted failures before tasting success. But that’s not the aim of this article.

Instead I want to share 4 steps towards becoming a successful entrepreneur even if you fail in business.

1. draw a line between your personal and business finances

Business, like life, is unpredictable.

Anything could go wrong.  And there are many reasons why a business might fail.

But protect yourself from failure as much as possible by separating your personal finances from your business finances and incorporate your company as soon as you start to grow.

When you incorporate, your company becomes a “person” on its own.  If it gets sued or you have to wind up operations, your personal assets should not be taken into account to meet any claims and you should not end up in huge amounts of personal debt.

If you fail in business, you can still bounce back.  But if you lose your house, your savings, and your future security in the process, it will be a lot harder!

2. take breaks after a business failure

Picking yourself up after a business failure isn’t easy, but there’s one great way to do it:

BREAKS

Breaks are vital.

It’s easy to start thinking of the next great business idea after a business fails. Don’t!

Stop coming up with ideas in your sleep. Stop thinking too hard.

You need to step back and not think about business. Allow your mind to rest in a different environment until you’re ready to really start again.

Why should you take a break?

Just like taking a break during the work day helps you to be more focused, happier and healthier, so is taking a break between a business failure.

If you push your body and mind to start all over again, you can easily become bored and unfocused quickly.

Taking breaks help you make new connections between your ideas and see things from a different perspective.

Breaks also help you reevaluate your goals and plans.

3. keep testing new ideas until you succeed

Business ideas are just… ideas.

Having a great business idea doesn’t automatically mean the idea will transform into a successful business. You have to test your assumptions first.

How?

Product validation.

By validating your product idea before jumping in head first, you can mitigate risk and build confidence in your idea before investing too much time and money.

One of the fastest ways to validate your product idea is to share your ideas with others.

Share it with friends, family, people in your mastermind group, people in your community and even complete strangers!

You should share your idea with at least 50 people who are willing to listen.

If at least 10 people (20%) say they would buy the product, it gives you a strong signal that there could be a market for your product idea.
You can then go ahead and create a mini-version of your product and offer it to them. If they buy, it gives you a stronger signal that your business could become a success.

The truth is, a lot of your ideas will suck. The logic is to keep sharing and testing until you fine the right one.

4. don’t quit your job… yet

Unless you have enough money in the bank to live on in the next few years, you should never quit your job to start a business. It’s not a wise decision at all.

You’ll be putting a lot of unnecessary pressures on yourself when you quit your job to start a business. Extra pressure causes you to make bad decisions.  And extra stress could affect your mind, relationships, and even your health.

The truth is the business world is a very uncertain place to be.

Sometimes, it’s possible to make 10 costly mistakes before you get one right.

Having a dependable source of income that helps you make and recover from these mistakes will surely help you in your quest to building a successful business.

over to you

What have you taken from your past failures that have made you a stronger entrepreneur?  Share your experience with us in the comments below.

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Michael Akinlaby is the founder of RankRain, an internet marketing company that helps big and small businesses gain attention in the marketplace, and convert that attention into revenue.

For tips on SEO, content marketing, and how to write words that people want to read, check out his blog and connect with him on Twitter.