009- Failures that Define Us

Failure is a part of life and a part of business. In your business journey, you'll experience failures and setbacks that will stretch and challenge you. How you respond to failures will make the difference on how your succeed. Basketball legend Michael Jordan was quoted saying "The key to success is failure". The reality is that failure can be our greatest teacher, if we let it.

In this episode I share my biggest business failure and the lessons that I learned through my painful experience.

Lessons to Avoid Business Failure:

#1 Don’t try to shortcut the process- Don’t try to force growth in your business when your business isn’t mature. Premature growth will place strain in all areas of your business. It will strain your sales requirements, internal processing systems, staffing requirements, and financial strain. Natural growth allows for you to develop robust systems one-at-a-time vs. all at once.

#2 Be slow to form Partnerships- Be cautious when considering giving up control and ownership to another person. Instead, seek out ways to form joint-ventures which will allow you to work together, yet part ways in the future without the need to split your company up.

#3 If you married or have a life partner, be sure you’re on the same page- Ensure that you're involving your spouse or partner in major business decisions. Your decisions impact them, and they often will have insights your overlooking, if you're willing to humble yourself and listen.

#4 Protect your Cash Flow- Stay focused on generating revenue in your business and always be watching your Cash Flow and burn rate. Refer to Episode #8 for more details.

#5 Be honest with yourself, call out issues quickly, and deal with them immediately- Don’t deceive yourself into thinking that a bad situation will right itself. It will only get worse if left unaddressed.