With every business, there is risk. That’s a given in this day and age. There’s no such thing as a perfect “get rich quick” formula, everybody is trying to find their own way to success. Since so many people are trying so many different things, there’s going to be a lot of different results. Many of these new ventures will fail, or come dangerously close. Whether these people reach their goal of riches depends on how new small business owners handle failure. If they just give up, then they lose their shot. If you’re in the face of failure, or just being preemptive, I’m here to help you through it.
Know It’s Going To Happen Someday
Starting your own business is the epitome of risk. Everything you do can have massive rewards, or massive consequences. You don’t have to have a full plan for every possible fail, but just knowing that it almost certainly will happen, that’s a good step. If you go in not expecting to fail, when you hit a bump in the road, it will feel catastrophic. If you expected a smooth road, without any bumps, you won’t take an unexpected bump well at all.
On the other hand, you’re prepared for a rocky road ahead, though, then that small bump is okay. You’ve expected to hit some rocks in the road. That doesn’t mean it won’t suck in the moment, but you saw this coming, so it’s okay. If the mindset is right before, then how new small business owners handle failure just got much easier!
Take Time To Grieve, Get The Emotions Out
Failure can be hard. I get it, I know firsthand how it feels for something to blow up in your face. 
It makes you want to give up, and just disappear. That’s normal, and it’s okay. You’ve just experienced loss, you should grieve it. People who don’t grieve, they still have those emotions bottled up.
Picture a two-liter of Coke. That’s you normally. Now picture someone unscrewing the top, dropping a roll of Mentos in (still sealed), and putting the lid back on. That’s someone who doesn’t grieve, a time-bomb of emotions. Eventually, some Coke is going to get through that seal, and as soon as the first little bit starts to fizz, it opens that package. Now you’ve got an entire roll of Mentos in there, reacting, and that Coke bottle is royally screwed. For everybody around you, and for your own sake, take time to grieve. Keep yourself safe.
Take A Step Back, Reevaluate Your Situation
Once you’ve gotten the emotions out of your system, just take a breath. Take your time, and look at what has just happened. Why did it happen? Is that something you could’ve prevented? If not, who could have? There are many questions you should ask yourself about the issue. Not just logical ones, but it’s okay to ask yourself emotional questions. How do you feel about what happened? Are you enjoying what you’re doing? If you’re honest with yourself about those questions, you could save yourself a world of energy and happiness.
Don’t Dwell On The Past
This by no means is telling you to forget what happened. I expand on this when I talk about how High School Graduates Handle Failure, the idea of learning from your mistakes while not letting them weigh you down. That’s a vital skill to help new small business owners handle failure. Whether your fail is large or small, if you learn from it properly, you’ll never have to deal with the same failure again.
That’s the silver lining to any failure, is that (with the right reactions) you’ll never see the same fail twice. You have to be able to let that failure go though. When you learn from a failure, that doesn’t mean to keep beating yourself up about it forever. All you need to do is know what went wrong, and how to stop it from failing. Doesn’t matter if it was your fault, or anything of the sort. The only thing that should stick with you is how not to repeat that mistake.
Reach Out To Family And Friends
Depending on how hard the fail hit you, you may need some people around you to help hold you up until you can regain your footing. That’s *not* being weak, not at all. That’s recognizing when others can be strong. Any good leader knows when he/she can rely on others. A leader that believes they have to do everything themselves, and only they can do it, is called a dictator.
Relying on those around you is a strength, not a weakness. If the fail hit you financially, emotionally, physically, in any significant way, then those who care about you would be more than happy to help you stand. Really, they’re there for you in more ways than you’d ever expect. I’ve had to rely on those around me in some times where I’ve messed up *really* bad, and they always surprised me with how reliable they can be. A lesson for another time, but that’s how you can find out who your real friends are, those who will drop everything to help you out.
Conclusion
How new small business owners handle failure dictates how successful they are. If their mindset is that of a paper wheel, they’ll fold at the first bump in the road. If you’re in it for the long haul, expecting those bumps with a rubber wheel, you’ll do much better in those bumps. Here’s your list, feel free to copy this down somewhere if you’d like:
- Know It’s Going To Happen Someday
- Take Time To Grieve, Let The Emotions Out
- Take A Step Back, Reevaluate Your Situation
- Don’t Dwell On The Past
- Reach Out To Family And Friends
With these five steps, almost any failure can be as inconsequential as dropping a slice of cheese. Remember to believe in yourself, stay strong. You can bounce back from this.. No. You *WILL* bounce back from this. The world is yours for the taking, now go take it!
