Being a business owner comes with a certain amount of risk. You say good bye to the 401K and every 2 week paycheck that is guaranteed to leave you getting by in life. And you step into a world of no guarantees, but full of potential. You could have a $5000 month or a $50,000 month. We wrap our minds around that when we start a new business, but there is one BIG RISK you HAVE to take to be successful that I see many entrepreneurs missing. It’s the risk of making mistakes.
You have to risk doing it wrong, messing up, falling flat on your face, making someone angry, hurting someone’s feelings, looking stupid, and everyone knowing you messed up. Sounds like a lot of fun right? Nope! It’s not the fun part of business. In fact, it is one of the least fun parts of business.
The problem is that if you DON’T mess up, you are living inside your comfort zone. One of my mantras I live by is, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” And as soon as I get outside of my comfort zone, I am more likely to make mistakes. I’m stepping into new and uncharted territory. I don’t know exactly what I am doing because I have never done it before.
I may go through 5 ideas before I find one that works well enough to run with. But the 4 mistakes are as important to my business as the 5th that worked. Every mistake I make, I learn from. I will take that as useful information on what works and what doesn’t and move forward to do it better the second time.
Here are some recent, fall flat on my face, examples.
- Went to a speaking gig of 125 people, and used an inoperable text opt in number to lead generate. Came home with 0 leads. Lesson learned: Numbers always get double checked. Campaigns always get double checked and we do not miss leads at live events!
- Ran a really great FB ad campaign that generated 331 clicks in 3 days. Only 2 converted to register for the webinar. Lesson learned: Our sales page stinks and does not convert! Ordered a program to teach me to write effective landing pages.
- Switched my sales team to hourly pay. Watched numbers go down and costs go up for 3 months. Lesson Learned: There is a reason sales people are paid on commission. It makes sure you have the right people in the position with the skills to convert.
We all make mistakes and some of the most successful people in the world are also huge failures if you look at their mistakes.
- Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
- Abraham Lincoln had a failed political campaign and a failed business.
- Beethoven had a music teacher tell him he was a hopeless composer.
The path to success is lined with mistakes. The only mistake that will REALLY harm your business is being unwilling to make them at all!
You are not defined by your mistakes, you are defined by what you do after you make them!