Overcome Failure with Marketing, HR, and Accounting Help

photodune-5991493-joy-in-work-xs Henry Ford has been quoted as saying, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Of course, it’s hard to remember inspirational sayings and act accordingly when you’re actually experiencing failure. However, successful entrepreneurs always take failure in their stride. You might find this hard to do if you’ve just started your business. Each “up” is going to give you an unbearable high while each “low” will find you down in the dumps. As time goes on, you’ll also learn how to accept these fluctuations, but not if you don’t begin with the determination to do so. Here are a few ways to help you get through the good times as well as the bad:

Accept Help

As per this article from Small Business Trends, “Taking on too much work can often lead to high levels of stress, which in turn can lead to an increased likelihood of making mistakes.” Instead of trying to do everything yourself, feel free to take help from people who are offering it.

Taking Self-Reliance Too Far. Most of us believe a little too much in self-reliance. So even when people offer us help, we say no, either because we don’t want to trouble them or we’re too proud to acknowledge that we don’t know how to do something. However, when you become an entrepreneur, you have to be humble. You have to accept that you’re not going to be good at everything. You might have a great deal of experience in certain facets of your business. But you may be quite incapable of taking care of other things.
Core Skills vs. Peripheral Skills. Most entrepreneurs have a certain vision for their product or service and they have the core skills necessary to make this product or provide this service. But this doesn’t mean that they have marketing, accounting or human resource skills at their disposal. These are peripheral skills but they’re also equally necessary for running a successful business. So it often makes sense to accept help in performing these functions.
Amateur vs. Expert Help. Sometimes, you can take help from friends and family. But, at other times, it’s best to turn to the professionals. There are a number of consultants out there who will help you with marketing, improving company culture, training people etc. You can also get accounting help for your financial management needs. Sure, you might have to pay something to get this kind of expert help. However, you might eventually find that the amount of time it frees up for you and the peace of mind it gives you will be worth it.

Learn from Your Mistakes

This might seem like a very simplistic piece of advice. But if you stop to think about it, do people really learn from their mistakes? Most of us go through life carrying the same sets of issues around with us, usually because of complexes developed in childhood. One person might constantly be battling a fear of not being good enough because of an overcritical parent. Another might find themselves prone to doing whatever people say because they’re looking for the approval they never got.

What Are Your Patterns in Business? Look over your own business practices with a critical eye. What patterns do you see? Have you always fought with authoritarian bosses? Do you tend to burn yourself out? Do you come up with grandiose plans which you’re not able to execute well enough? There’s no need to share this information with anybody. But you do need to learn from it yourself.
Taking Action. If you’re in the same type of pattern, you have to learn to break out of it. If you’re befuddled by money matters and unable to keep a clear account of finances, figure out a way to solve this problem, either by working with a bookkeeping firm or learning to do it yourself. If you tend to get burned out because you’re working too much, take a weekly holiday to do whatever you want. If you let your employees do whatever they like because you’re afraid of seeming too authoritarian, it’s time to take things in hand.