There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when you just catch a bad break. You work really hard on a deal. You thought it was yours. Then at the last minute, after nearly a year-long sales process, you loose the contract. This especially stings when you’ve spent hours studying the customer and cultivating an internal advocate over lunches and dinners. You tracked the incumbent vendor and shaved you margin as much as you could to get the business. It feels like a kick in the gut when it slips right through your fingers.
After you get over the initial shock, this becomes one of those days that makes you wonder why you are even in business. You probably feel like nobody loves you and no one seems to care. When it happens the first time, you might not be sure how to handle this, particularly if you are one of those small business owners who takes things personally. Your business is your baby after all, who can blame you, Right! Not really. The sooner you learn not to take these things personally, the better you will handle it when things don’t go as planned.
I know this pain. During the early years of running my first company Quintessence Multimedia it happened several times, and it hurts–a lot. I remember one time in particular, there was an advertising agency we had been chasing nearly a year. Once day we got a call and that they wanted us to fly down to Austin, TX to discuss a specific project. At the time, things were tight financially and we really needed this opportunity. When we got there, the client invited us to dinner and then stuck us with the check. Then the next day, as we were presenting our capabilities, I knew five minutes into the meeting that these people had no intention of doing business with us. They had wasted our time and our money, and I was furious. I actually lost it that day on our host after the meeting. I later found out that one of our corporate advocates had asked their agency to meet with us, but a real business opportunity was not promised. I learned a lesson that day about how to qualify customers, and that people have no problem wasting your time.
After it happened, I reached out to a mentor to complain, and she told me something that has always stayed with me. She said, ”When things don’t happen that is God’s way of protecting you from something or someone.” I took what she said to heart, but then I felt so defeated every time we got the rug pulled out from under us. I know that many of you have felt the same way, maybe even recently.
This past week, I heard Olympic ski medalist, amputee, and author Bonnie St. John speak at a women’s history month event. Now, Ms. St. John is a one-legged Olympic skier, and she talked about how she won her first medals. She said in downhill skiing you needed to compete in two races to win a medal. After the first race in 1984 Paraolympics, she was in first place in gold medal position, but the second race was on a different course. Word from the field was that there was an icy spot on the course, and some people had wiped out, and one woman had been taken to the hospital. Bonnie said as she started her second race, she was doing well hitting her stride, and all of a sudden she hit the ice. She fell, and said she felt like crawling off the track. But something in her said get up. She got up and finished the race and earned a Bronze medal. She’s said, ”Everybody falls, but winners get up.” She later said the woman who won the gold medal had fallen too, but she got up faster.
In our businesses, there will be many times when we get knocked down, but successful entrepreneurs get up faster than the competition.
Do you have a suggestion for how to handle major disappointment in a business?
For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.
Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she
develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource bloghttp://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the bestselling author ofBecome Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.
I may not have much suggestion for how to handle major disappointment in a business but my opinion like I have wrote on my blog (http://smallbusinessgists.blogspot.com/2012/03/do-you-give-up-easily.html) is that in such situation, Never give up! even if you are disappointed. Your failure is the key to addressing how you can achieve your first or next success. Believing that the disappointment is that step on your ladder which will lead you to your desired success is also a positive way of moving ahead. Don’t give up easily, get up and achieve that dream.
Great post, and something I needed to hear! I had a job fall through last week, and it would have been easy to say something snarky. We really needed the work, but I reminded myself I didn’t know all the facts in the decision chain and at any rate there was no sense in hurting back: we’re called to something higher. I responded with grace reply and moved on.
Excellent! High five George and looking fwd to hear about the better thing which came. Keep the faith and carry on.
Appreciate the encouragement!
Excellent advise from your mentor..one of the life lessons I am learning to fully embrace is every cloud has a silver lining. But sometimes we forget and keep standing under the cloud. Stuff happens aand life continues whether we join it or not. One of beauty of working for self is learning to master emotions and get up. Posts like yours serves as useful reminders and reinforcement of our goodness. Thx. Happy day.
Getting up, to continue a race, is just a basic principle to guide all human beings, towards success. People who make trials, often fail, but they easily learn, and make-up. The message was an inspiration. Welldone.
It’s funny how you’ve shared this on Twitter…today! I so needed this. Thank, Melinda!