Social media often frames business ownership as a “sexy” venture filled with #girlbosses and #digitalnomads. However, there is also the reality: You are running a business … often by yourself! Here’s the deal. “Running a successful business takes work, but a large part of climbing to the top is overcoming failure. A significant number of small businesses fail in their first year and even more tank in their fifth,” as mentioned in a recent article by Smallbiz.Tools. In the article, I joined several entrepreneurs to share our lessons learned from business failures.

“CB Insights collected information from 101 (recently updated to 311) failed startups. Their data revealed that nearly half of failed businesses did so because there was a lack of demand for their product. Fortune crunched the numbers and revealed that additional top reasons were lack of money, not having the right team, bested by competition, and poor marketing. Though the reality seems scary, plenty of business owners learned from their biggest failures to better their company.”

My “aha” moment taught me to have confidence in myself and my products. This is a huge lesson that I am passing along to you. My entrepreneurial friends and I always joke about how business ownership is the biggest self development journey. It truly is! Owning a business will challenge you to step up into your CEO role and weather the wins and failures … and there will inevitably be both!

“I learned that in entrepreneurship, it’s perfectly okay to set boundaries with your clients, so both of you can have a better brand experience,” I said in the Smallbiz.Tools article.

This is an lesson that all entrepreneurs will go through. My clients and I have also faced similar moments in which you need to draw the lines to reestablish that you and your clients are in a mutually beneficial relationship. Keyword: relationship. Once you realize this and establish how you can best serve others without compromising your skills and their needs, you will start to become the leader that you need to be.

I share further details within the article. You can read more about other entrepreneurs’ and my lessons here: https://smallbiz.tools/small-business-failures/