The Positives of Failure in the Entrepreneurial World

Failure is definitely a word we’re all terrified of but within the entrepreneurial world its something we have to learn to embrace. No matter what type business you’re in, no one is successful without a few failures along the way. The preconceived notion that entrepreneurs become successful overnight is a fairy tale or pipe dream. It takes dedication, headaches and a lot of hard work to bring any initial concept to the final stages of fruition. Let me share my experiences and bumps in the road in shaping my own entrepreneurial career.

In 2008 I decided to create a photo device called Fauxcialite which would take animated picture of folks at events and simultaneously broadcast them at the event and social media platforms (back than it included MySpace and Facebook). The main focus behind Fauxcialite was to extend the lifespan of the event beyond a single evening and provide brands with the ability to drive traffic back to their site through these pictures. I pulled some strings, got a small business loan and started production with the immediate interest of some major brands. Unfortunately, the recession soon followed and I quickly learned that my business had too many “costs” and not enough of a margin, and based on how quickly technology was moving, I learned that building a physical component wasn’t going to be the best option.

This was an essential entrepreneurial lesson I never would have learned if it wasn’t for trial and error. It was a simple but necessary business lesson to have learned; you always need to make sure your profit margin is high, and this is one of the main reasons software technology has become so viable. Software like iPhone and iPad apps for example  are extremely cost effective when it’s a good product.  Building an iPhone app has a much higher profit margin than building a physical product (unless you invented the next great thing).

This experience made me a much more confident and wiser business woman.
We very often get blinded by our own entrepreneurial concepts without really thinking enough about the potential returns; how will we charge for the services or how much will customers plan on paying for the services etc. is extremely important when considering new entrepreneurial ventures.