Small business failure or Small business success may be achieved many ways. In choosing your path to success you must have a good understanding of failure.
In business coaching the goal is to create pathways to achieve business and individual goals. And, in the process, to recognize failure before it becomes a big event
Imagine for a moment that you are in the business of raising corn. You have decided that this is good path to the small business success you desire.
You have a pond for the water you will need for the corn. And next to the pond is the fertile field in which you will plant your corn. The one thing you must have is a controlled supply of water.
Have you ever thrown a stone into a pond? Before you do the water is absolutely calm. In fact you can see your reflection. And, depending on the angle you may be able to see the bottom. There is clarity. Then the small stone hits the water’s surface and everything changes.
Your decisions, which may seem small, are like the stones. You may not think they are of much consequence. Yet, when repeated daily over a period of time they will become significant and affect the outcome of your business.
They can cause your clear vision to become muddy. What if you were able to throw stones in a pond continually for several years? It would definitely affect the pond. The pond would become shallower and because the stones were displacing the water the pond would grow outwardly.
Eventually it grows to a point to where it now floods the area where you are growing your crop of corn. Now the crop is lost. Your small business fails.
Most people would look at your business and see that it failed the day your crop of corn was flooded and destroyed. They would say that was the day you failed. But, in truth, that failure came from throwing stones in the pond over a long period of time.
The key to small business success is to recognize failure is to understand that it is not one grand event. Failure is the accumulation of many small errors in judgment repeated every day over a period of time.
It is also subtle. Very often, something small in the way you are thinking or what you are doing can lead to failure.
You will find the path to success by making many good, small decisions with your stones. The result will be that you will be rewarded with the opportunity to make larger decisions for the small business success you desire.
I would love to hear your thoughts on failure, how to recognize it and what you do about it.
