Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I'm sure a lot of people have failed on one business venture or other in their lifetime. I know I'm not the exception. But, I believe we can learn from our mistakes and failures.

While I was thinking about this, I posted an article on my own blog. But, I'm not here to plug my own blog, I just wanted to see if anyone has any similar stories to share so we can all maybe learn from each other's mistakes.

I'm interested to see how other people made mistakes and how they bounced and what they learned from them.

I have seen many businesses start out and then never go anywhere. I have yet to start my own, but I've worked with quite a few new businesses online as a writer. Most find themselves failing because they are shooting to high and not being realistic with their ideas.

When starting an online business you really need to treat it like you would in the real world. If it isn't something people are going to want then you aren't going to get up off the ground, so find a market that is popular and something everyone wants.

The online world is definitely booming, but there is always going to be businesses not working out. I agree with you... the only good way to learn is by failing now and again. It isn't a bad thing to fail, it is good to learn from everything you go through.

One of the greatest mistake I ever done was I focus more on my day job and took my own ideas for granted. Now I promised myself that I would still work and give my best on my day job but I'll make sure that I'll have enough time for my own business.

In fact I'm already working on my business marketing strategy during lunch breaks. I realized that "I have no time" is a very lame excuse especially if we're talking about starting your own business. I've learned to be more determined to start something.

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We didn't fail but came close, we made a lot of mistakes when we first started our Mobile oil change business in 1999 there was NO help out there for us. We wanted to "throw in the towel" and admit defeat so many times during that first year. However we had many people praying for us and the customers that we did have just loved the service. So we kept pushing on and started learing. Eventually things clicked, costs went down and our customer base began to grow. We had turned our mistakes around, learned from experience, polished up our approach to potential customers, continued to find better vendors, and began to do very well. We started getting emails from other "mobile lubber newbies" asking questions, seeking advice. FINALLY one day we realized that while we were helping those who emailed us, what about the countless number of others who didn't just happen to email us with hope that we would answer their questions? That is when it hit us! YES we really should write a book. A "How to" manual so that we could answer all the questions we had been asked PLUS include a lot of tips that we had learned that people hadn't even thought to ask about. The rest as they say, is history. We spent every spare minute and worked many late nights working until we knew it was right. From the response we have received it's obvious that many people have felt the need to learn more about this business and we are very glad that we have found a way to reach out to them.

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Melinda

http://www.melrics.com