A lot of businesses are thriving while others are falling down like water down the drain. Business may become unpredictable which can cause failure. A story about farmer opened the eyes of many business owners. The story goes about a farmer who lives in Hunter Valley and spent all his life on his piece of land. His dad is a dairy farmer that has established a cattle sale yard. However, the arrival of coal mining in Hunter Valley changed everything. This event led to the obstruction of dairy farms in the area. However, there have been agricultural land that remained but the land that was left was then touched by Queensland firms who ship their cattle to the south. If you look closely, you will notice that there must be something that the farmer didn’t do which led to business failure.
Is it because the change they have done is leading to failure or is it because they never allowed room for change?
Business owners must always be aware of changes that can affect their business such as the contraction, economic climate, technology innovations and even expansion due to a growing population. If these conditions took place the same way it had to the farmer who owns a cattle yard, then there should be a different direction and reconstruction or diversification which are mandatory. Instead of grieving for the loss of business which can only lead to despair, do something about it and be mindful of the changes that are taking place in, out, and around your business.
What do you do when your business is falling right in front of you?
Well, don’t just stare it going to shambles!
The first thing that you need to do is to be aware and get in-touch with your feelings. There is no need to be in denial and avoid what you’re feeling deep inside. It is very normal that you feel grief and disappointment when business failure happens. Allow yourself to feel grief and disappointment or even anger. Have yourself an outlet, if screaming would help, scream under a pillow or take a trip to the mountains and scream your lungs out. Once you’ve done this and you’ve finally let out of all the negative emotions, get over it and move on. There is no room for you to be mourning in grief for too long.
Put on your most confident smile and brave the world. Doing this will drive all the negative feelings away. After expressing those pent-up frustrations, you will definitely feel better and see the world in a new light.
Now, the grieving period must be over at this point. It is time that you put on a new perspective on what you left behind. Then start asking yourself questions such as:
- Is there an opportunity in this business failure?
- What did this failure taught me?
- How can I improve my business and not let this thing happen all over again?
- What are the opportunities that I can grab that I wasn’t able to see before?
- What are the needs out there that I can attend to?
A lot of great entrepreneurs have gone through a business failure once in their life or even a couple of times but they have managed to pull their selves back up and get back to business. These questions will make you become more oriented in making up solutions instead of drawing up problems and getting yourself too deep in these problems. Dan Kennedy and Donald Trump are two of the most successful entrepreneurs today and they have wonderful stories of business failure that led to rising up again and getting their feet back up. This is because both entrepreneurs share the same important truth which is: business failure does not mean failure of their own creativity.