Episode #112: My Biggest Business Failures

This week, I look at the 6 biggest failures I’ve made in business. I talk about bad investments I’ve made, ways I put off some things I needed, and jumped too early at others I wasn’t ready for. Looking back now, it’s easy for me to see where I went wrong. When I was first starting out, however, I got caught up in second-guessing myself, like so many of us do.

Bad Investments

In getting started, there were a couple of investments I made that didn’t pan out the way I had hoped they would. I talk about the research I could have done to save myself some time and money when I was still learning, and how I likely should have bowed out of those investments much earlier than I did.

Not Hiring a Coach

As women, we tend to believe that we need to do everything ourselves. I found this very true as I tried to learn everything on my own, not believing that I was “ready” to bring on a coach. Once I did hire a coach, I was able to clarify my business strategy and marketing, and I grew bigger and faster. Sometimes, we have to leap before we’re completely comfortable!

Waiting to Charge My Worth

I wanted to get a lot of experience, quickly, and my compromise in doing so was keeping my rates low. Much of this came out of the fear of hearing a “no” in a sales call. I noticed, once I had built up my confidence and began charging my worth, that my dream clients arrived so excited to work with me!

Think Big Mastermind Program

While I certainly waited too long for some things I needed, I jumped too early at others I wasn’t ready for. This was the case with the Think Big Mastermind Program, a program some of you might remember from a while back. I really needed to build my audience and solidify my one-on-one coaching as a VIP offer before I could jump into something like this Mastermind Program.

Not Trusting My Gut

Learning to trust myself was a pretty big hurdle to get over. I made some mistakes in the beginnings of my business by ignoring red flags with clients and accepting people walking over my conditions. Now, I remind myself that I create boundaries within my work for a reason, and my dream clients will be happy to work within them.

Not Future-Proofing My Business

For a long while, my main focus was on my one-on-one coaching, but it wasn’t really sustainable for the growth I was planning for. Creating online courses and one-to-many or one-to-few was how I learned to create more stable income.

In listening to this episode, my hope is that you will see how trusting yourself and seeing your own value will show others to do the same. Mostly, I want to reassure you that we all make mistakes! Mistakes create opportunities for us to learn and course-correct along the way. In the end, if we trust ourselves and take the leap, we’ll get where we need to be.

Links mentioned in this episode:

The Business of Thinking Big Podcast
Episode 33: Is It Time to Hire A Coach? 
Episode 98: Joy, Success & Leadership with Amy Porterfield 
Episode 19: Social Media Marketing with Rick Mulready 
Episode 27: Shifting from Practitioner to Leader 
Episode 38: 5 Reasons to Build an Online Course 

A-Players Group Coaching Program