Don't Let Fear of Failure Slow Your Business Growth

Is your fear of failure causing you to turn down opportunities that could help your business grow? Of course you want to be smart about your business, but for it to grow, sometimes you have to take risks. Get past your fear of failure so you don't hold your business back.

Failure – it’s one of people’s biggest fears in the business world. They fear it so much they end up running from anything that seems like it would lead to it. This causes them to miss great opportunities that could have resulted in big success Instead of running away from failure – what if you ran to it? What if you took every opportunity, and didn’t worry about it failing? This would likely lead to many failures, but some really great growth opportunities for your business.

The problem is getting over the high anxiety of failure. The good news is that all it takes is changing your perception, and using failure to help you rather than hurt you. This is how you can do it.

Turning Failure into Business Success
The reason you fear failure is because you believe it’s a bad thing. That makes sense since even as a child you were probably told doing something incorrectly was bad. Now is the time to look at not doing something right as a good thing.  

Working with Failure
Your first reaction to failure is probably anger and frustration. After you get over that, you become depressed. Why? Because you wanted a different outcome, and you didn’t get it. You’re mad you didn’t get it and you’re really sad that you’re going to have to end that dream.

Instead of ending it, see how you can change things. For example, you tried a new marketing plan. You made NO money from it. Instead of dropping it, why not figure out what made it unsuccessful and change that part of it?

The more you fail, the more you learn. Take the lessons you get from the fails, and use them to do something different. It doesn’t have to be something radically different, just enough that you may end up with different results. Just because something doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean it failed. Something only fails when you abandon it completely. Moving forward with whatever you’re doing shows you’re working on making it a success.  

Moving Forward with Failure
Sometimes, you have to abandon what hasn’t worked out. This doesn’t mean you can’t use what you learned. For example, you have a client who is unhappy with your work. It was unsatisfactory because the client believes it was low quality or didn’t follow the instructions given. You can take this information and beat yourself up, or you can move on and use it to better your business.

If the client believes it was low quality, find out why. Take that information and use it to ensure other work you do for other clients isn’t the same. If the work didn’t follow instructions, be sure to be more mindful of instructions from other clients. This may have been a good lesson in how you need to step that part up, which will make your others clients happy with you.

When you are able to learn from unhappy clients, failures won’t make you feel so bad. Not only that, they will help you do more for others, which will in turn lead to more referrals and business. If you’re able to do that, those failures turn into more money! Don’t look at failure like it’s a horrible thing that will destroy you. Look at it as an opportunity to grow your business.

All you have to do is step back, look at what happened, and plan what you’re going to do to keep the same thing from happening. It’s all part of the growing pains of business. Learn to love it.

How great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek

[FULL]Tony Robbins Business Mastery - The Only 3 Ways To Grow Your Busin...

JACK MA’S TIPS – HOW TO GROW A SMALL BUSINESS (Jack Ma 2017)

The difference between what a customer wants as against what they need

By understanding the difference between a customer’s ‘wants’ versus their ‘needs’ is one of the key fundamentals to marketing and future business success and growth. Often what a customer ‘wants’ is diametrically opposed to what they ‘need’. As a business owner and marketer, your objective is to interrupt the conversation going on in their head and to give the customer what they want. Helping them to understand what they need is important. However, it’s not your responsibility to convince customers to get what they need. Businesses make money by satisfying their customers wants not needs. Often it’s easier to sell them what they want than what they need. Clearly this is where business, marketing and sales people should primarily focus their energy. Buying versus Selling Most people prefer to buy something rather than have it sold to them. There is a subtle yet significant difference between the two. When people do the research then decide for themselves what they want and they go out and get it, they feel like they have ‘bought’ something and feel good about the purchase. On the other hand, if if they are undecided and a salesperson convinces them to buy, even if they actually need it, the customer may feel that it was ‘sold’ to them, what we would call a ‘hard sell’. It often makes them feel like the sales person has seized the power in the relationship. If you want customers to feel good and are interested in future sales, you have to give them what they want. So what about their needs? What a customer wants is not what they need. As a caring person you may feel it’s your responsibility to tell them as much about the product or service. In that case the best you can do is share the information you think they need to know but allow them to make what they feel is the right decision without feeling under pressure. Sometimes the customer will agree with you, change their mind and thank you for your help. Other times they may completely disregard what you say and still pursue what they want over what you know they need. For your business sake and profitability you should be willing to sell them what they want without making them feel bad about it. Needs versus wants In sales, a need is something that solves a real or imagined problem. A want, on the other hand, is simply something that would be nice to have. Often customers have no idea what they need, they simply know what they want. When you give them what they want, in the long run this enables you to build a lucrative ongoing relationship with them. One in which they feel they’re in control. Wants are way more powerful What the customer wants is more often a powerful motivator than what they need. This becomes clear when you take time and listen to your customer and ask them to tell you why they want what they want. Usually they have a burning desire to get what they want and simply want you to show them how they can get it. Customers tend to get more value, joy, and satisfaction from purchasing what they want versus what they need. Successful sales people understand this and know how to use it to their advantage. Customers want to feel good and they are in control of the ‘buying’ process Business and sales people make their living satisfying customers’ wants and needs. It becomes clear very early in their careers that the average person is usually willing to spend more on want they want than what they need. The purchase makes them feel good so price is never a barrier, as long as they can afford it and don’t go too much into debt which they regret in the future (buyers remorse) Understanding what your customer wants and giving it to them at a price they can afford has made countless business and sales people successful. It’s a lot easier to sell people what they want than what they need. +++++ If you need help to grow your business and looking for some practical advice why not arrange a call with me or visit to find out more.