Browsing Tag
failure
15 posts
Why Startups Fail: A Harvard Business School Professor’s Letter to a First-Time Founder
The following is excerpted from the book "Why Startups Fail" by Tom Eisenmann. Copyright © 2021 by Tom Eisenmann. Used by permission of Currency, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. StartupNation has partnered with Yottled to provide the fastest way to bring your business online. Get started...
Want to Start a Lower-Risk Business? Become a Franchisee
The day I became a franchisor, the ceiling collapsed. Literally. I was at Kidville headquarters in New York City and had just signed the final documents. The phone rang, and the CEO answered it. He handed the phone to me and said, “This is your problem now.” A heavy truck had pulled into the parking...
4 Common Reasons Why Startups Fail (and How to Overcome These Obstacles)
Most startups fail—up to 90% in 2019—and unfortunately, more often than not, the founders themselves are responsible. Financial reasons are often cited as one of the most common factors for startup failures, and these are, of course, hugely important. I have also found, however, that there are often more personal reasons why startups fail. These...
6 Tips to Help Find Empowerment Through Embracing Failure
Launching a business is an exciting, and challenging, prospect. Unfortunately, there will always be times at which you experience unexpected roadblocks as an entrepreneur. It might be misplaced trust in an unreliable partner, lost revenue, or economic upheaval that puts your venture on shaky ground. Regardless of the specifics, you must understand that mistakes and...
How to Benefit From Your Fear of Entrepreneurial Failure
Failure. It’s a loaded word in the startup world. Eric Ries told founders to fail fast in his quintessential book, "The Lean Startup." Other entrepreneurs swear that failure is what led to their ultimate success. And yet, fear of failure still holds many business owners back. What if I don’t make any money? What if I lose...
Top 5 Reasons Why Startups Fail (and How You Can Avoid the Same Mistakes)
It goes without saying that every entrepreneur wants their startup to succeed. While starting a business, your passion and drive is often the easy part, while trying to keep your business afloat and heading in the right direction is often more difficult. With high hopes, long term plans and money going into new businesses, it’s...
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurs
If you need capital to get your business started, you might turn to crowdfunding to raise those funds. Reaching out to venture capitalists and angel investors is stressful; you’ll need a pitch deck, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the funding you want, and even if you do, you may have to give up a portion...
5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in the First Year (and How to Avoid Them)
The first year in any business will consist of some mistakes and a steep learning curve. The objective should be to react quickly to pitfalls that pop up along the way, but also to avoid simple mistakes by planning ahead. 5 common mistakes entrepreneurs make during the first year of business, and how to avoid...
Why I Quit My Job to Launch a Startup, Failed and Would Do it All Again
This isn’t an overnight success story, this is a real story. It was a mid-September afternoon in 2016. There I was, on the top floor of some swanky office, peering through floor to ceiling windows over the autumn skyline. I’d gotten a promotion a few weeks before, my second in just four years; someone up...
Your Business May Have Failed, But You Can Still Prevail
Upper Street was a dream for any entrepreneur. The bespoke shoe label, started in 2010 by Julia Elliott Brown and her sister Katy Chandler, allowed customers to design their own shoes online using 3-D technology before trying them on at its London location. The concept struck a note with women worldwide, winning over an impressive...
8 Fears All New Entrepreneurs Must Understand and Overcome
Are you familiar with the story of Zeno of Cyprus? Here’s a quick synopsis: a merchant named Zeno lost his wealth when his boat shipwrecked. Shortly after this incident, he took an interest in philosophy, and he originated a new type of philosophy called stoicism. Today, people recognize a stoic person as someone who remains...
Success After Failure: How These 5 Entrepreneurs Bounced Back
Any successful person will tell you about a life-defining or breakdown moment of failure from their past that was responsible for making them who they are today. These entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their black swan events that caused big epiphanies. 1. Chaos creates opportunities Moving can be as stressful and traumatic as death, public...
ViSalus CEO Ryan Blair Advises Pay Attention to Your Time… Line [Book Excerpt]
The following excerpt is adapted from "Rock Bottom to Rock Star: Lessons from the Business School of Hard Knocks" by Ryan Blair, in agreement with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Ryan Blair, 2016. I get asked this question all the time: Knowing what you know...
Learn How to Fail Fast in Order to Succeed
The following excerpt was selected exclusively for StartupNation readers from “Daring & Disruptive” by Lisa Messenger. Excerpted with permission by North Star Way publishing, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. I think the key to failure is that if you’re going to fail, you may as well do it fast. I have seen so many people do...
How to Embrace Failure and Succeed [Book Excerpt]
We are living through a global entrepreneurial renaissance. Entrepreneurs are everywhere and thanks to the Internet, as well as technologies enabled by open source and cloud computing, there has been no better time than the present to launch a new product or start a new business — both cheaper and faster than ever before. But there...