How to Stay Positive After Losing a Business

Losing a job is one thing, but losing a business is in an entirely different league. Your own business is an extension of your own creativity and desires, and generally people invest far more in a business than they do in a regular job. As such, losing a business feels like more than simply losing a source of income.

Unfortunately, startups have a fairly high rate of failure, especially for those who are new to entrepreneurship. Fortunately, there are lots of things that you can do to stay positive after you lose your business. Staying creative and optimistic can help you reinvent yourself after a failure and ensure that your second attempt will be an unprecedented success.

Tips on Staying Positive & Bouncing Back

Following these ideas, as best you can, will help to ensure that you can overcome the struggle you’re facing. Once you’ve accepted the failure as a learning opportunity you’ll be better equipped to start a business that’s less likely to fail.

Commit to Learning From Mistakes

Pretty much any successful person, whether they’re an entrepreneur or a scientist, will attribute a large part of their success to their mistakes. We all make mistakes. Those who succeed are those who don’t get overwhelmed by their mistakes and, instead, choose to learn from them.

If everybody gave up as soon as they made their first mistake, nobody would get very far. If you commit to learning from your mistakes — ideally before your business as a chance to fail or succeed — then they will become setbacks rather than failures.

Stick Around the Right People

If you want to stay positive and optimistic, then you need to stay positive and connected with good people. If your primary connections are with people who are cynical and jaded, it can be easy to develop a similar attitude yourself.

After a business failure, you don’t need somebody to harp on your mistakes. Chances are, you’re probably doing that enough yourself. Instead, you need people who can help you focus on solutions rather than problems.

Analyze Your Expenses and Finances

If you weren’t doing it before, then you need to start taking careful account of your expenses and finances. You want to make sure that you’re never operating at a loss.

If you had most of your money tied up in your business and have to declare bankruptcy, you can still try not to worry. There’s still a chance for you to get a fresh start and be more accountable.

Work With Other Entrepreneurs

Take some time to get to know other entrepreneurs, especially successful ones. It can feel endearing to try and tackle the world of business on your own. Independence can be rewarding, but it can also be a hindrance — especially if you’re new to entrepreneurship.

Spend time getting to know other entrepreneurs and see what you can learn from them. You’ll be able to apply tips and tricks learned by people who have plied their trade for years.

Don’t Rush Yourself

If your business fails and you’re immediately pressuring yourself to start up again, give yourself a break. Take some time off. This gives you a chance to collect your thoughts, analyze your previous experience, and put a plan in motion that will prevent failure in your future endeavors.

Failing to do this makes you liable to repeat the same mistakes. Furthermore, the added stress of constantly pressuring yourself makes it easier to overlook problems or obstacles that might seem obvious in hindsight.

Take Care of Your Mental and Emotional Health

Losing a business can be a serious hit to your self-esteem, motivation, and overall outlook. On the other hand, mental and emotional issues like these can be a catalyst for business failure.

Your mental and emotional health are foundational. If you don’t have a strong and stable outlook then you’re much more likely to make mistakes. Unemployment stress can also be a huge factor that obstructs your ability to start over. Making a commitment to personal growth can help ensure success.

Take some time to check in with yourself. See a counsellor or therapist, if you can. While there might be some stigma against seeing a mental health professional, there’s literally nothing that you can lose from doing so. More likely, you’ll learn some tools and skills that you can apply to keep yourself feeling strong and sturdy even amidst the chaos of life.

Spark Your Passion

If you invested all of your passion into a business that failed, it’s easy to lose sight of your goals and dreams. Losing your passion is going to make it much harder to set up another business that will succeed.

Try to recall the feelings that you felt when you first decided to open your business. Recall the positive aspects of running a business, and all of the successes that you enjoyed — big and small.

Finding your passion again will be reinvigorating and will help you overcome any adversity that you might face in the future. With the burning torch of passion lit, you’ll be able to push through any darkness that might threaten to overwhelm you.

Organize Your Goals and Set Up Milestones

If you set your sights too high, it can be easy to get lost along the way. Breaking up your goals into smaller, manageable milestones is a great way to help yourself get back on track.

Instead of having one giant, looming goal that seems forever out of reach, set up a number of smaller tasks. This will give you something to focus on in the short term. Achieving these smaller milestones will also help to invigorate you each step of the way.

Exercise Your Authority

Even if your business failed, this still puts you in a position of authority. It may not have been successful, but at least you made an attempt at entrepreneurship and learned along the way. This means that you can educate others who are interested in making their own startups.

This can help you earn respect among newcomers in the business space. Being a respected voice can help you gather your own self-respect and feel empowered to start again.

Conclusion

The months following a business failure are the most important for you to learn how to boost your business skills. Figuring out how to mentally bounce back is vital if you want your next attempt to succeed.

If your business is struggling or you’ve already lost it, remember that you can always reinvent yourself and try again.