Must Every FIRST Business of an Entrepreneur FAIL?

[Dami-B]

He spent 6 months, No, Sorry 8 months, that's a lie, "a whole year" without sales, not one single customer.

How? Well...

First month - writing a Business Plan, (with the help of one of the best "investment analyst bankers" in the country, 40 pages long).

Second Month - Market Analysis (without actually speaking to the actual customers who will use this product)

Third - Sixth Month - Registration of Business, Creation of E-commerce website, Generation of suppliers for products, Business letters, Business Cards, Seal, Online Payment Gateway.

At this point, He is so far off into his mental progress that He doesn't know who his customers are anymore, neither has he approached them, or validate a need, a market, a pain to solve.

Seventh Month

He goes into operations trying to gather sales, He tells himself "I will just probably upload products online, advertise on Google and Facebook at least we have a few followers there, i'm sure with time we would get some sales". 31st of seventh month - No Sales

Eighth Month - Now things are getting tricky, His Pops just called him in asking about his plans, he can't keep on going like this, but he is stubborn, he doesn't want a job, people have invested into this business with him, this gives him sleepless nights, his investors skype him every morning about his progress, nothing to report except some gibberish about how tough it is to gain market share, His investors know crap about the market they have invested in, neither can they had value since both of them are slowlaners and are looking for a fast exit.

Ninth Month - His Mom, Brother, Father's tenant and family friend makes a few purchase, this gives him a false sense of progress and he believes he just had his first sale.

Tength Month - Now He is Desperate, He is cold calling, cold emailing every possible lead of customer he can get, trying to ram down his products into their lives, still no response, still no sales, How sad is this? Very sad, I Guess.

Eleventh Month- He reads The Millionaire Fastlane , through the book learns, about a forum in which the book is based on, He has made so many mistakes that cannot be covered in a single article, but yet he is stubborn, yet he doesn't give up, His competitors are selling, there must be something they are doing right, he didn't try to reinvent the wheel, but he isn't getting response, he isn't getting sales, something is wrong.

Twelve Month

His birthday was yesterday, everyone on Facebook was praising, "Entrepreneur of the Year" "I can't Believe your passion" He isn't fooled by this, HE HAS HAD IT, but still He is stubborn, He keeps asking himself "Have I Done All I can to make this business work" the answer is always no, His gut tells him to keep on trying, But he is not sure if he can trust his gut anymore, its so corrupted at this point, He has contacted every major leader in his industry, trying to see if he can solve their problems, sent proposals to them but still no reply, He is doing something wrong, what could it be? he has no idea, maybe you reading this has an answer, but what is his question, what's really bothering him, what's the main point and essence of this really long post, here it is:

In an Entrepreneur first Journey of business when does he know its time to Quit? and when does he keep on going and pushing it?

As you must have probably figured out, He is Me, and I believe a lot of Newbies in the business world face this when to keep on going and when to call it quits dilemma, I hope I learn something from this all, but I must say it has been a refreshing exercise writing all this.

 

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[GuestUser113]

 

[Dami-B]

Thanks Raoul, Incredible video, I guess I just have to keep pushing till feedback either negative or positive starts flowing in

 

[Esquire]

I don't think there is an easy answer to this.

I think it depends on the strength of your conviction.

I think you need to step back and ask yourself ... did I misjudge consumer demand ... or does the problem likely lie in my execution ...?

Do you have a great product and lousy marketing ...? Or do you just have a lousy product ...?

Or maybe you are marketing the right product to the wrong audience ...? Or selling the product at the wrong price point ...?

Or perhaps people don't see your unique value proposition ...?

etc. etc. etc.

It could be ... all sorts of things.

Only you can make that determination.

But to your original premise ... do I think most entrepreneurs "first" project will fail ...?

Yes.

I'd say that's a statistical fact.

But ... each time you get knocked down and get back up ... the odds get better.

 

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[snowbank]

Ninth Month - His Mom, Brother, Father's tenant and family friend makes a few purchase, this gives him a false sense of progress and he believes he just had his first sale.

I have a friend who's family member did this. He wasn't making any sales on their business venture, and they bought one to help inspire him. He was on the verge of giving up as an entrepreneur.

He got very excited by this and didn't find out until much later what they had done. It motivated him to keep going. He went on to create a very well known business that I'm sure at least hundreds of people on this forum have been customers of.

Must Every FIRST Business of an Entrepreneur FAIL?

EVERY entrepreneur has failed. Anyone who says they haven't is lying to you. Entrepreneurs who end up having a lot of success fail way more than others. The truth is, if you're aiming to achieve anything and grow, you should be failing. Not ever failing means you're not ever growing.

You spent the first 12 months not working on things that would equate to a successful business. But now that you've gone through a year of that, you've learned the hard way those things weren't relevant to a successful business. So, in a way, your failure, has brought you success. It doesn't have dollars attached to it yet, but if you don't quit, it will. You know a lot that you didn't know last year.

What do you think would happen if you failed for another year: I Dare You To Fail For One Year

Make sure you have a specific goal in mind, and a plan to make it happen. This will help: Accomplish Any Goal You Want

The only difference between successful entrepreneurs and those who never make it, are the people who never make it give up before they reap the rewards of the lessons of their failures.

Keep pushing dude, it's all part of the game.

 

[RogueInnovation]

Fail until you are tough enough to not get kicked to the curb.

A man/woman must test their omph.

The start of learning is really bleak, you feel like there is no traction at all, anywhere. You just need to isolate and locate ways to improve every day, and expose flaws, to clear out.

Then, over, over, over, over, over, over and over again, until you get a glimmer of hope, then over and over and over and over again until, poof, you get a little flame.

Thats it.
Business or no business, you need to put in work.

 

[Dami-B]

Then, over, over, over, over, over, over and over again, until you get a glimmer of hope, then over and over and over and over again until, poof, you get a little flame.

This is Exactly where I'm at right now, its like i'm throwing a lot of things out there, granted this has been the most creative time of my life, because i keep coming up with options to make it all work and i'm acting on them, as i'm writing this, i'm also working on a letter to one of the leaders of the top churches (with a gazillion members) in my country with a sample of some of my products, I'v been reading on the boron letters and gary halbert thanks to ICK's thread and learning how to communicate value properly. I just feel like Noah at this point, middle of the sea, ocean all around him, he keeps sending out the bird, the bird keeps coming back with Nothing.

 

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[Dami-B]

I think you need to step back and ask yourself ... did I misjudge consumer demand ... or does the problem likely lie in my execution ...?

Do you have a great product and lousy marketing ...? Or do you just have a lousy product ...?

Or maybe you are marketing the right product to the wrong audience ...? Or selling the product at the wrong price point ...?

Or perhaps people don't see your unique value proposition ...?

You know I created a 4x4 Matrix, (Right Product, Right audience) (Right Audience, Wrong Product) (Right Product, Wrong Audience) (Wrong Product Wrong Audience) and I asked myself "Dami if someone held a gun to your head right now and asked which of these quadrants do you belong to" I would probably say Right Product, Wrong Audience simply for the reason that others are selling this product like crazy, and my style of marketing is just not appealing to my perceived customers, you know I was listening to some gary halbert you tube videos last night and he said the internet is like the 6th most effective way to get sale, he ranked face to face, phone call and direct mail as top 3, this really had me thinking sine 90% of my marketing is ...., well you guessed it.

But to your original premise ... do I think most entrepreneurs "first" project will fail ...?

Yes.

This is really tough for me to swallow, is there a book that shows how to limit your mistakes on your first try or at least give you an edge, although my business has changed so much this first year, almost like i'v taken a complete 180 turn from all the jargons in my business plan, i guess that's failure in its own sense.

 

[Esquire]

You know I created a 4x4 Matrix, (Right Product, Right audience) (Right Audience, Wrong Product) (Right Product, Wrong Audience) (Wrong Product Wrong Audience) and I asked myself "Dami if someone held a gun to your head right now and asked which of these quadrants do you belong to" I would probably say Right Product, Wrong Audience simply for the reason that others are selling this product like crazy, and my style of marketing is just not appealing to my perceived customers, you know I was listening to some gary halbert you tube videos last night and he said the internet is like the 6th most effective way to get sale, he ranked face to face, phone call and direct mail as top 3, this really had me thinking sine 90% of my marketing is ...., well you guessed it.

This is really tough for me to swallow, is there a book that shows how to limit your mistakes on your first try or at least give you an edge, although my business has changed so much this first year, almost like i'v taken a complete 180 turn from all the jargons in my business plan, i guess that's failure in its own sense.

Sounds to me (then) that the solution is obvious ... you need to become better at sales and marketing.

That may entail acquiring new knowledge reading ... or becoming more disciplined in your execution ... applying what you read.

Simply switching products or services will not solve the underlying problem if that's the cause.

It's like building a house on a foundation of sand ... if that doesn't work ... you don't go looking for a new pile of sand.

You seek out a solid foundation.

That foundation ... is sales and marketing.

So my advice would be ... acquire new skills ... and work on your execution.

Then ... when you move on to the next product ... you'll be lean and mean.

Those skills will follow you.

As for who to read and study ... here's a link from a marketing firm I really like (click here).

 

[Esquire]

Another thing to consider is whether the "selling like crazy" has more to do with "who" they are ... as opposed to "what" they are selling.

In other words ... are you competing against trusted suppliers with goodwill ...?

For example ... think of something that Wal-Mart and Amazon.com sell a lot of.

I'll just pick something at random: Padlocks.

So you look at their sales and think ... a lot of people need padlocks ... I think I'll sell the same padlocks.

Good luck with that.

Or suppose "Men's Health" Magazine or "Beachbody" is selling nutritional supplements.

So you decide you are going to sell the exact same thing.

Good luck.

Or maybe you are a brand new attorney out of law school ... and you want to complete with the established local firm running the personal injury commercials on TV. Who knows ... in reality ... you might be just as good at what you do ... but good luck convincing a prospective customer of that.

So you might want to ask yourself ... to what extent do your sales have to do with how you are marketing ... versus the reliability of your brand ...?

One more thing to think about:

What worked (and works) for the first guy in the market ... will not necessarily work for you.

Take my industry (for example) ... dating sites.

The big players ... like Match and e-Harmony ... are rolling in the dough. People are signing up left and right.

But if I try to do what they are doing ... and market my site to a general audience ... I am going to get my a$$ handed to me.

And it does not matter whether my site is "better" ... it may well be ... but I will get absolutely steamrolled.

There is a need for all-purpose dating sites ... but that need is being adequately met.

So I have to niche ... or micro-niche.

Having a "better" site is not enough. Being "better" is the minimum cover change ... just to get to the starting line.

The real challenge is the marketing.

 

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[Dami-B]

The big players ... like Match and e-Harmony ... are rolling in the dough. People are signing up left and right.

But if I try to do what they are doing ... and market my site to a general audience ... I am going to get my a$$ handed to me.

And it does not matter whether my site is "better" ... it may well be ... but I will get absolutely steamrolled.

There is a need for all-purpose dating sites ... but that need is being adequately met.

So I have to niche ... or micro-niche.

Having a "better" site is not enough. Being "better" is the minimum cover change ... just to get to the starting line.

The real challenge is the marketing.

To really understand this, you need to understand the growth of the e-commerce industry in my country, you see online shopping didn't take off till like 2 years ago, the biggest online shopping mall right now has only been in existence since 2012, so people are still taking a huge learning curve to the whole online experience, making payments through online gateways.

I know people love my product simply for these few reasons:
1. I source directly from the "local farms" (I'm the only one right now that has been able to pull this off in terms of supply, so my products are comparatively cheaper and healthier)
2. I only sell my products in "bulk" (cartons) so consumers only purchase once in bulk in 2 weeks or a month, as opposed to every day of the week
But these big companies have the finance to build marketing campaigns to gain the trust and credibility of the skeptical buyers. 2 days ago I posted a product of mine that's really good on our Facebook page, we had a lot of likes and a few comments, but not one single sale, so I just really need to do a better job of gaining their credibility and trust. Moving forward, I'v learnt to much from this forum to know finance is just another excuse and I can come up with more ways to kick their butt or at least give the big boys something to think about. The real challenge really is in the Marketing.

 

[Journey2Million$]

...

 

[randomnumber314]

Read this

Specifically this part:

Years ago, when The Boston Beer Co. was just getting up and running, I received a phone call from my uncle, a partner at Goldman, Sachs and one of my initial financial backers. He asked me how things were going. Fine, I replied; the first batch of Samuel Adams beer was in the aging tanks and would be ready for delivery in about five weeks.

"So," my uncle continued, "what did you do today?"

I told him I'd spent the day shopping for a computer system. When he asked me why, I explained that I figured I'd need a computer to keep track of sales, payables, and the like.

"Oh yeah," he said, "sales. By the way, have you got any?" I admitted that I did not.

"So what the hell are you doing buying a computer?" he demanded. "You know, Jim, I've seen a lot more businesses go broke because they didn't have enough sales than I've seen go under from lack of computers. Why don't you work on first things first?"

 

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[RogueInnovation]

Yeah, those little birds... they come back with nothing for waaaay longer than you'd like.

You don't have to FAIL a business first though before they come back, but it requires a change in self that is sometimes helped by giving yourself the permission to fail (dont create debt of course).

Failure is good, it means you put yourself out there
But often people misinterpret what putting yourself out there means, and they think it means a numbers game.

It means putting forth your best, without garuntee of return.

 

[Journey2Million$]

Reading your post, I see you did a lot of dumb things, because it was your first business, and you were clueless and delusional and had no idea what you were doing, and on top of that you were stubborn in your delusions.

I have long disliked the concept of someone starting a business, spending a large amount of capital, and trying to go big as a total beginner. This is like trying to play in the superbowl when you've never even played football before. I think this doesn't work most of the time. The dot com crash was full of clueless noobs who had no viable business model.

To be a successful business person, you need experience, judgment, knowledge, and skills. This stuff takes time to acquire. So you should start small and operate as cheaply as possible in order to gain experience without going out of business or risking a large amount of capital. Because most likely you are going to totally suck as a complete beginner in business. By starting small you can stay in business as long as it takes to grow your skills and knowledge and to get to the point where you are actually making steady profits.

Now that you know what you did wrong and learned a lot of lessons about what not to do, I recommend you start over and start small and just grow your business organically. Don't borrow money this time. Don't try to start big. Many big businesses were started with only $100. Sharper Image was started with $100. You can't buy success in business or anything else. You have to earn success by being good at what you do. Success depends on how good you are as a businessman. Also read business advice from experienced people. I heard there are retired business men who are willing to be mentors.

What you did so far wasn't really a failure. It was a learning experience, which now puts you ahead of where you were before. Next time don't be delusional and be more realistic. Don't cry about being a failure. It's normal to not succeed the first time in anything.

 

[Dami-B]

Th

Reading your post, I see you did a lot of dumb things, because it was your first business, and you were clueless and delusional and had no idea what you were doing, and on top of that you were stubborn in your delusions.

I have long disliked the concept of someone starting a business, spending a large amount of capital, and trying to go big as a total beginner. This is like trying to play in the superbowl when you've never even played football before. I think this doesn't work most of the time. The dot com crash was full of clueless noobs who had no viable business model.

To be a successful business person, you need experience, judgment, knowledge, and skills. This stuff takes time to acquire. So you should start small and operate as cheaply as possible in order to gain experience without going out of business or risking a large amount of capital. Because most likely you are going to totally suck as a complete beginner in business. By starting small you can stay in business as long as it takes to grow your skills and knowledge and to get to the point where you are actually making steady profits.

Now that you know what you did wrong and learned a lot of lessons about what not to do, I recommend you start over and start small and just grow your business organically. Don't borrow money this time. Don't try to start big. Many big businesses were started with only $100. Sharper Image was started with $100. You can't buy success in business or anything else. You have to earn success by being good at what you do. Success depends on how good you are as a businessman. Also read business advice from experienced people. I heard there are retired business men who are willing to be mentors.

What you did so far wasn't really a failure. It was a learning experience, which now puts you ahead of where you were before. Next time don't be delusional and be more realistic. Don't cry about being a failure. It's normal to not succeed the first time in anything.

Thanks I appreciate your point of view, yes I did make a lot of mistakes and I am a fast learner and I also did a a lot of incredible things during those periods as well, so you're right it was and still is a learning experience I'm not bothered about failure never have, never will be, its the mindset that im focused on right now, it could have been very easy for me go to bed and be like "oh well, i quit, its my first try, i was probably destined to fail, no need to keep pushing just jump to another project" but rather than do that i worked throughout the night, i'm still working right now, slept for 2 hours, it doesn't bother me at all, I am a pusher and I am progressing bit by bit. I have started learning how to micromanage my cashfow, i'm spending way less now on stupid stuff, its all about getting feedback from the customers here on out just as @Esquire suggested, and that's the mindset i'm rolling with, if they don't want it, then i will close up and do something else. Thanks again for your response

 

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[MakeMoreMoves]

Oh boy, I've been away from this forum. But this OP is exactly what I am going through now. Two businesses and failing hard. 6 months in, 0 sales. Other business has sales, but margins are pretty bad and liquidating everything. I'm sitting in a Walmart parking lot at 3am typing this. I've sunken to a whole new low. Thanks for your post Dami-B

 

[Dami-B]

Oh boy, I've been away from this forum. But this OP is exactly what I am going through now. Two businesses and failing hard. 6 months in, 0 sales. Other business has sales, but margins are pretty bad and liquidating everything. I'm sitting in a Walmart parking lot at 3am typing this. I've sunken to a whole new low. Thanks for your post Dami-B

I'm sorry you are going through this @ABetterLifeNow, but I can also tell you i'm glad you are going through this, because this pain you feel will only make you stronger, wiser, bolder and successful down the road as long as you don't give up on yourself.

For me the way out of the pit was FOCUS, I was in too many businesses and Iacked the focus to grow my baby back then. Take some time off, if you can to re-think, re-strategize and really focus down on one venture and promise yourself you would commit until you see results.

There are plenty of other remarkable responses in this thread, that will help you on your journey to success, I wish you the best. Don't beat yourself up on failure, it happens to each of us at some point.

 

[Jeremy Groover]

I would not say the EVERY first business fails. However, I would say that most will simply because lack of "Trial and Error".

Most of the "First" businesses I've seen succeed were usually service businesses simply because it is easy to judge the demand or the market had a "new wheel". My first business, if you could even call it that was a small Ebay business. I am a car enthusiast particularly a classic american and 70's-90's Japanese car enthusiast. So trying to turn my knowledge into a small business I got the great idea of putting together L.E.D. dash light kits. Not the interior neon light kits you see in the ricer cars. I had what I thought was a solid plan and I started my research. There wasn't a large competition in this so I did not have much to go on. I figured out the bulb sizes for roughly 10 of the most popular cars and got to work. I went on Alibaba and Aliexpress and started purchasing bulbs then most nights after my day job I would spend nights separating the bulbs into "kits". Ahha! I'm onto something! I started posting them on Ebay for 30% profit which is not the greatest but because I only spent 400 on product I obviously didn't purchase enough to get any crazy deal on the bulbs. To my surprise I didn't sell one kit. I changed wording to get different "Hot" words in there and began getting 400+ views on each post. Still no purchases. What was I doing wrong? I had the best price on the bulbs on Ebay (So I thought). I even wrote up installation instructions on these cars that I offered for FREE with a purchase and still nothing. The idea of L.E.D. bulbs appealed to me and swapping out the old incandescent bulbs were a common practice so why weren't they selling?! Come to find out, I was not the cheapest bulb supplier on Ebay. I searched other variations of the bulbs and there were guys selling them cheaper then what I was even paying for them. On top of that, there were well known companies doing the exact same thing as me but with TONS of variations. They were offering interior bulbs and exterior. Dome lights and driving lights. Ac control lights and courtesy lights. I could not compete. My research involed less then a week of searching Ebay for kits but with the wrong keywords. I didn't learn the key words I needed until after I was $400.00+ in the hole and 1 month of lost time. If I spent that month of lost time on actual research instead of taking off running then I wouldn't have wasted the pennies and could have used that for a flip on CL or something more productive.


Sorry for the run on post but to sum this up. ALL BUSINESSES WILL FAIL WHETHER ITS THE 1ST OR THE 100TH ATTEMPT AT YOUR BUSINESS if you don't put in the time to research supply and demand or figure out what can set you apart from the rest. People get comfortable and form habits. The only time people break habits are when they are unhappy, required to, something becomes easier or more convenient. Usually when I see a business fail its because there was a step missed or short-cutted. Verify that the product is needed. Verify where your going to get your sales from. Find your demographic and figure out a way to reach out to them.

Check out this video.

You may or may not being looking to sell on amazon but just watch the video and how he executed his business. This video has really opened up a new perspective for me. Some of the things he talks about can really be a game changer.

 

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