Starting a business can be an enticing endeavor, but it comes with its risks. Whether or not it’s worth the risk is up to you, but this article will go over what happens if the business goes south. Without further ado, let’s get right into the strategies that can help you recover from a failed business venture!
The Upside Of Having Your Own Business Or Side Hustle
Obviously, I think it’s great to start a side hustle or try to turn a side hustle into a full-time business. I recommend that people try it all the time. There are ways to minimize the risks (really, it depends on what type of business you go for), but you can get so much out of it.
First and foremost, there is the potential for massive financial gain. I think that’s the main reason why people try to start a business or side hustle. It’s a way to augment your income and build new sources for your household. Beyond that, it can also teach you a lot of valuable skills that translate to other endeavors – whether your business succeeds or not.
The Risks That Come With Owning A Business
The downside of owning a business is notable, no matter what you do to minimize it. The business can go under, and at the very least you may not have a source of income anymore. Beyond that, you may also lose all the money you put into it, and you may even owe money because of the business. Being your own boss is exciting, and potentially rewarding, but you have to weigh the risks appropriately. If you find yourself having failed though, don’t panic. Failure is one of life’s greatest teachers, and there are ways you can recover.
How To Recover If You Fail
There are many things you can do. Not all of them will always apply to your situation. However, if you find yourself in a failed business venture, I would at least consider every item listed here and how it could help you in your situation.
Accept It
First, you’ll need to learn to accept your business venture’s failure. It can always be hard to admit failure, but it isn’t something you should be ashamed of. After all, you took the risk and at least tried, which is more than most can say. Yet, if you don’t accept it, you may waste far more resources than you can afford by trying to save something you’ve become emotionally invested in. If it’s a lost cause, accept it. You can’t afford to pour more money and time into it unnecessarily if it’s already failed.
Take The Lessons Learned To Heart
Another key thing after a failed business venture is to take all your lessons learned to heart. As I said before, failure isn’t horrible – you can learn from it. So, use this failure to help you in whatever you do in the future. This could help you turn around and launch another business, or it could help you develop skills that are beneficial for your career.
Use Your Emergency Fund
It’s never ideal to use your emergency fund, but it’s made for times like this. It’ll be particularly useful if your business was your only source of income. So, if you find yourself unable to pay bills until you can pin down a job, start pulling from your emergency fund. Try to do it slowly, and start cutting your expenses if they’re a bit over the top. Hopefully you’ve saved up enough to give you the time you need to recover. If you haven’t, take that as another lesson learned for next time – always save at least 6 months worth of expenses.
Find A 9-5, At Least For Now
As I just said, if your business was your only source of income then you’ll probably need a job as soon as possible. Even if you plan on starting another business, it is probably a good idea to get a job so that you can make ends meet in the interim. This may be a short-term thing, but swallow your pride and do it if you need to.
Relying on your business as your sole source of income isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never have to work a normal job again. That comes from investing and planning for your retirement. When you have enough to retire, that gives you the flexibility needed to not have to work a 9 to 5 job anymore.
Recognize That This Isn’t The End
It may seem like this is the end of the world for you, but it isn’t. Humans can be surprisingly persevering beings. Even if this is financially devastating, you can recover in time. Keep your chin up, take what you learned from this, and know that it’s entirely possible for you to come back from this failure.
Reevaluate Strengths And Opportunities
However, for some people this can actually be a blessing in disguise. Take a good look at your strengths and what went wrong with the business. You may be better suited for different types of side hustles or businesses. With that in mind, try to reevaluate the opportunities you currently have. It’s possible you may have better things on your horizon, and this was just the first step you had to take to learn what you needed so that you could get to the next stage.
Take A Vacation
If you can afford it, just take a vacation. It may be a good idea to just get a complete reprieve so that you can reset. That way, when you come back, you can tackle everything you need with new vigor. Of course, it’s possible you may not have the luxury of a vacation. In that case, make sure you do something that helps you relax and unwind – however simple it may be.
Focus On Your Next Venture
When in doubt, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and march towards your next venture. If you have the discipline to keep trucking, you’ll be able to achieve a lot. No matter what happened with your previous venture, that doesn’t mean that you can’t try to do something else now.
Failure Is Normal And Part Of The Process
Remember to not let yourself stay in the dumps. Failure happens in business – a lot. Many of the most successful businessmen have failed many times, so it’s important that you learn whatever you can and then keep moving forward. Failure happens. It’s not ideal, but it’s normal. Learn what you can from it, but don’t let it prevent you from living the rest of your life and using what you’ve learned to succeed later.
The Bitter To Richer Story
If you’ve read the About Me page, then you may know a little bit about this. However, I had an unsuccessful business venture. Two, in fact. The first didn’t really get off the ground. I put a lot of time in it, but it just wasn’t feasible. All-in-all, I didn’t lose too much from it.
The second one though, that was a bit of a doozy. I invested an immense amount of time, and a decent chunk of cash. It was on track to do quite well, but unfortunately the international supply chain issues that happened in 2020 because of COVID-19 brought the business to a screeching halt. I was no longer able to get what I needed from suppliers!
The point is, I learned a lot from those two failures. They helped me learn a lot of skills, and they’re part of the reason why I have successful side hustles now. It took time, but it’s been well worth it.
Conclusion
Hopefully this helps you if you need to recover from a failure in your side hustle or business. If you have any tips of your own, be sure to leave them in the comments. For more content like this, and a free budgeting template and financial goals worksheet, be sure to sign up for the Bitter to Richer newsletter!
