How many Business Failures did you have before success?

[MHP368]

Key finding: A wallet, with wads of money in it, that opens, is all that matters -- this should be the starting concept of any new business play. Definitely not "this seems like a good business idea".

Yeh , let dollar city hedge on the expanding lower class and poverty sales. If someone can't casually drop 50 bucks on a thing then I'm going to ens up with headaches on the back end anyway (or so it seems)

I wonder if anyones ever done some data analasys on that and seen how complaints / returns etc correlate with the price of a good or service. I feel like its lots more trouble on the low low end but I wonder how expensive a single purchase has to get for it to pick back up again with the same ratio.

500 bucks? 5000? But I digress...

 

[Deleted50669]

7 for me

Damn, I'm curious what you told yourself after the 5th and 6th.

 

[ZCP]

grew up in small business ... had to get out of there
helped build a department ... politics
sole proprietor ... did well, incorporated
inc .... should have folded twice due to cashflow issues

no true 'failures' ... am on like the 5th iteration, so said 4

 

[RoadTrip]

So I have a question. On #3, the blog, if you would have been having success, would you have kept it going or do you think you would have lost interest even if it had been a success?

That is a really good question. And thinking about your question seriously now I can't give you a conclusive answer. I would lean towards loss of interest because I'm not really passionate for the weight loss market. But who knows that passion might have sparked after helping lots of people.

Just out of curiosity... why are you asking?

 

[minivanman]

That is a really good question. And thinking about your question seriously now I can't give you a conclusive answer. I would lean towards loss of interest because I'm not really passionate for the weight loss market. But who knows that passion might have sparked after helping lots of people.

Just out of curiosity... why are you asking?

I didn't want to hi-jack this thread so I sent you a message.

 

[David 964]

This is so far 4th business, none of them failed but they transferred from one to another. None of them failed in making money, however every one of them fail to provide real wealth (time, finances , freedom and life on my terms).

 

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[lunga ngcobo]

MODERATOR NOTE: POLL ADDED!! PLEASE VOTE!!

How many business's have you all had before you found your breadwinner?

My first business was a success by normal standards (200k a year +) but not by fast-lane standards.

half the businesses ive tried became a sucess but only problem is they could'nt be scalled to fastlane levels because they violated most of the fastlane commandments.

Our young bodies make fools out of us: When you are young you have a hole lot of energy and make a mistake of thinking that you will forever be young. As i grew older i realised that i was running out of energy so i started thinking of businesses which can bring income even when im 95% absent. That shift in my thinking alone made a big difference.

My turning point: I started reainding blogs about how to handle money, then escalated to full length books and now im on entrepreneurial forums.

I would say its not only about succeding in business but its about succeding in a fastlane business.

 

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[Vegvisir]

I have an folder on my computer I keep all the different business ventures and ideas I have or am working on. I for the first time just looked through it and counted each section.

Successes(high ROI): 3
Failures: 7
Ideas I researched but decided not to pursue: 18

I am currently working on a new venture that meets all the NECTS commandments, really hoping I can add this one to the successes category.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

This poll is crooked... where is the option for ZERO?

Just kidding, I'm at 1-2 failures (depending on how you count them) before my first success.

 

[WJK]

MODERATOR NOTE: POLL ADDED!! PLEASE VOTE!!

How many business's have you all had before you found your breadwinner?

My first business was a success by normal standards (200k a year +) but not by fast-lane standards.

I went to Los Angeles to make my fortune when I was 19 years old. I've made and lost several in the real estate business. I'm a lot smarter now about how to build things up and then hang on during downturns. I hear that the average is that you must make it 3 times. You lose the first two and hang on the third on average.

 

[theofficepass]

MODERATOR NOTE: POLL ADDED!! PLEASE VOTE!!

How many business's have you all had before you found your breadwinner?

My first business was a success by normal standards (200k a year +) but not by fast-lane standards.

4-5, Still haven't succeeded, but now i know i will.

 

[WJK]

It’s a painful one though, I’ve been working on it for almost 3 years now.

Yes, those hurt. I've had some BIG ones over the years. What have you learned? What can you take forward from the situation? Can you salavage anything? Hang in there. This is one stone in your road.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

All of my ideas have made some profit, but none of them so far should be considered a success.

 

[WJK]

This is incredible! You should start another thread

How did you find the company that did the seismic studies? Were they going to be the ones drilling if the results were good?

Also, do you know if somebody else bought it after your go failed? I would be afraid the seismic study would be good, the oil company would downplay it, convince me to sell at a loss, and they would buy it for themselves.

Actually, I got the oil company who owned the leases around me to pay for the seismic study (by a 3rd party) on my lease when they were doing theirs. That was a huge expense I didn't have. I live in a small, rural community and I know just about everyone here. This is an "oil patch" area. That oil company is known as a reliable, straight shooter. So, I trust what they said. IF my lease had been part of the gas deposit, I owned 4 contiguous lots, totaling about 40 acres, where we could have done straight and directional drilling from my lots for my lease and theirs. I had legal street access from the north and the south. And the gas field next door had a pipeline that we could have used to get our product to market under Alaskan laws. Our agreement was that I would have partnered with them or they would have bought out my lease depending on the drill results. It would have been the "gold ring" of my life. Oh well. It was a great dream while it lasted.

Oil exploration is always a HUGE gamble and this situation just happened to come available -- so I submitted a bid on it to the State auction. (At that huge lease auction, that involved lists and lists of leases, I was one of two private party bidders. The other bidders were there for their corporations.) I knew a guy who had been waiting for that leasehold to come up for bid for many years. He didn't have the money at that time to do it The oil company that did the seismic won the bids on all the leases further out from the working gas field. As the bid envelopes were opened and read, to my amazement, I won the bid on the lease which was closest to the working gas field. It was a very exciting moment.

My investment looked like a good bet at the time. I sure learned a lot about the oil industry and how the leases work here in Alaska.

People who come later have access to the seismic data after a few years. I actually reviewed all the data available at the time that I made my bid. -- but there were no seismic studies. We did do some satellite maps that looked favorable. But, the proof is in the seismic studies. I don't know of anyone who bought all those leases. I'm sure that they figure that if it could have been developed, we would have done that. And they'd be right.

 

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[Smith953]

Because I was unaware of how unsustainable it would be, my first year was an incredible success. However, in my second year, I failed on every metric. In year two, I made so many costly mistakes.
Now that year three has begun, I've learned SO MUCH about running a business that I can't really consider year 2 to be a failure, but it was still a costly experience. I took many risks that more seasoned businesspeople would never take, and I now promise never to repeat those errors. Even though they were very costly errors, the cost was still less than a year of business school, and I already had connections and real-world experience.
Since I surpassed the industry learning curve during those first two years, I refer to them as "my street MBA."
Months have passed before I was able to move past how terrible year two was. But the fact that I now know where to concentrate my efforts gives me hope.

 

[WJK]

3 times so far

Only 3???? Keep trying.

 

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[HoneyBadger302]

Failures can be a vital stepping stone to a successful venture. They can get that one contact or skill that you really, really need. They can educate you on how things work. They can become a necessary piece of a bigger puzzle. They can be a road sign to get you to change your direction... If you are really lucky, they can be more than one thing or have multiple meanings.

In my case, they definitely highlighted the difference between a business and just a side gig/hustle. Some lessons learned along the way for sure, many of which were what "not" to do, but lessons none the less. I'm sure there are more failures of various magnitudes in my future as well, but so long as persistance and a vision and self discipline pay off, I can make it happen.

 

[Jrjohnny]

I mean what counts as a “failure”? I’ve been starting little businesses since I was 9 or something. If a failure means that it never took off or didn’t get any clients, Im at like a solid 3 or 4. But I’m hoping this next one will succeed. (There’s only 2 listed as I forget the rest)

Business 1 = pokemon card rip off called
Chip Cards: money made: $0
Ill try to find one of them and send a picture.

Business 2 = lawn care services
Money Made: $0 (on hold for now)

 

[Pirsimils]

I've had a couple of businesses before finding my current breadwinner. They were all valuable learning experiences, but it took a bit of trial and error to hit the sweet spot.

 

[SSTrey]

I sure don't expect things to work out the first time I try them. I know it's a long learning curve to figure out how it is all going to work. This is especially true for complicated operations and plans. I try to take it one part at a time and get that aspect working. Then I move on to the next one and add it to my working parts. And I start with the easiest one first and move on from there. By the time I get to the hardest part, I've had time to think about it and it goes together easier. I used to start with the hardest part and struggle with it. I found that starting there caused total failure because I was stuck without seeing a way out.

I find that 'in Steve Jobs words', we can only really connect the dots looking back.
As we are consumed in our journey we sometimes forget to look back.
Ive had carwashes, tutoring, furniture selling business, all I consider failures, lets hope my current fastlane attempts are much more fruitful ... 3 yrs and counting.

 

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[Sterling729]

I'd say 2 that I put serious effort in, 1 that I'm starting to do more seriously

1) Daytrading
Started trading forex while doing grad school. Quit grad school, worked for a prop firm daytrading stocks full time. Moved to a different city to join a bigger prop firm. I was a part time trader for about a year a half, before switching to full time for 3 years. The prop firm was commision based. I'd say I only took about about 5K the entire time I was there. I went practically insane learning every single strategy and market I could find. I guess the plus was I took up coding to do automated trading, and eventually left to get a software developer job.

2) Vlog/eBook
Had a soccer YouTube channel and analyzed pro players techniques. Started at the beginning of the pandemic and recently been winding down. Built value and goodwill with my audience. Only grew to 1.5K subscribers since, but engagement is high. All this time, never really thought how I'd make money. Ran a shopify store selling soccer equipment which I linked to the channel, but never generated any interest. Finally released the ebook. From running shorts on Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, only managed to get 10 sales at 7 dollars each, with each short having around 1-3K views each across the platforms. Don't know if I should promote it more, but I feel like there's not a ton of money to be made in it. If I sell enough of it, the ebook can be distributed freely online. From what I seen other soccer channels do to make more serious money, running training camps and ID camps where scouts come to look at you isn't something I want to do. I don't like the idea of selling improbable dreams to desperate kids looking to go pro. (Though have thought about being a soccer agent and doing private session trainings using the research I've done with those players under my contract)

3) Shopify/Dropshipping
6 months ago, bought custom made sunglasses with emojis (wearing sunglasses) on the arms from a supplier. Seems to garner 0 interest. Started it because my GF's uncle has been very successful with his sunglasses brand. Been researching what products seem good. Did RC Cesna Planes, but my site was shitty. Restarted with Japanese tea cups with designs. Site is better and got 1 add to cart but no sale because my shipping was high. Found a supplier with very cheap shipping since. However, I know this is quite a saturated space. Plan is to kind of figure out how this kind of business works before potentially manufacturing the items themselves and getting better distributors, etc. However, compared to the daytrading world, it feels no where near as saturated. At least, I'm not competing with a gazillion machine learning algorithms all fighting each other. On the other hand, reading through this forum, it seems like dropshipping isn't a market I should really focus on lol.

Any wise words welcome.

 

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[YoungPadawan]

Depending on how you count - I'm up to 4 or 5.

The quickest thing a new entrepreneur should learn to help avoid mistakes (IMHO) is understanding their costs - fully and completely.

It's (relatively) easy to build up impressive looking revenue numbers - $100k in year 1 is not even remotely unrealistic for most businesses. But there's a very, very good reason why you don't often see the after-tax profit number being thrown around in case studies and success stories. The number of businesses running high revenue, low profit businesses is staggering. I'd even say it's the rule, not the exception.

Even bank account screenshots aren't great indicators - look at any business bank account after Black Friday and you'd be downright envious until you realize that the owner just ran the most expensive month of the year for advertising dollars spent, needs to do an expensive inventory re-order, is about to be bombarded with returns, and still has to pay their taxes.

I know I've been guilty myself of not understanding what I made in a year until I got the summery from my accountant after tax season. This should never happen.

Keep good financial records, then keep them better than that.

Amen

 

[Cameron Aanonsen]

Thanks for all the reply's everyone learned a bunch here! Just met someone who is an mechanical engineer and we are working on creating some products that dont exist yet. This is much like the story in MJs book about the guy he saw in the Ferrari who was an Inventor. Very exciting times!

 

[Everyman]

It's (relatively) easy to build up impressive looking revenue numbers - $100k in year 1 is not even remotely unrealistic for most businesses. But there's a very, very good reason why you don't often see the after-tax profit number being thrown around in case studies and success stories. The number of businesses running high revenue, low profit businesses is staggering. I'd even say it's the rule, not the exception.

Why would you say it is like that? It's interesting...

 

[MythOfSisyphus]

MJ, you didn't have a 0 option!

So I really thought about this and I can honestly say zero. But I say this with an asterisk because I dabbled before. I had a blog with adsense, I had a hobby business (where I made it a business to get wholesale pricing) and I had real estate. But I don't think any of those really qualify as me really trying to start a business. My first real business was my ecommerce camo business that I started in 2007. This was the first one that I actually got an LLC, a business license and business bank account.

So I think I got lucky with my first one, but my next 3-4 businesses failed and I ultimately decided to stop trying to start more businesses and to stick and grow my first one.

Any ideas why your subsequent ones failed?

I'd like to think that once I sell my current business I'll be able to start another successful one but often worry that this one might have been a fluke.

 

[rogue synthetic]

I've had at least 2-3 failures that I can remember, where either the business wasn't profitable or I folded up something that might have been profitable with more patience. I'm voting for the last option in the poll though, because despite some short-term profitability I haven't actually created a profitable business.

 

[JokerCrazyBeatz]

For me it was 1 but i still havent mastered it . I honestly just recently realized I was "successful" because I've made money online consistently . For the longest I was like "If im not making $50k a month I'm not successful " .

 

[Sheens]

I am also at 0. I had not considered starting a business during the 8 years of college and then worked as an employee before owning. Profit, yes. Fastlane, no.

Would the poll still be amendable to add 0? Or zero with a mandatory explanation or options such as: I have never tried, I have made profit and not failed, or I am one and done swimming in my FU money!

 

[Kid]

How many do you need?

 

[Kloetenlui]

I tried a clothing business without having any clue about how that industry worked. Failed really hard. Then I tried youtube. Worked but wwas unreliable. Now I have a mineral company. Let's see how that works.