The success in failure
As business owners we’ve all experienced failure. I don’t think I’ve met too many people who admit to or enjoy the feeling. Like everyone I’ve had my share of failure over the past 4 years in business too. One big life and business lesson I’ve learned is that its the 2 ‘P’s: ‘Persistence and Pondering’ that help to counter the ‘F’ word and find the insights needed to discover why we fail, what to do differently and how to transform failure into success.
Its been my experience that failure is where success is built. Being open to failure is an essential and critical attribute because it’s where, if we’re balanced and emotionally intelligent enough, we can learn the most about ourselves and what our customers really want in business. If we’re not failing in some way then we’re not learning. Life, after all, is a lesson (or a ‘gift’ as my mentor is teaching me – much gratitude Mel).
Being in business for just 4 years teaches you a lot. You fail a lot because you don’t know what you don’t know. And I didn’t know what I needed to know back then. But I persisted. I fell down more than a few times and got ‘thrown off the tiger’, but I pondered and got back up again thanks to some help along the way. Belief plays a big part too, as does strategy and execution.
I’ve learned that the biggest danger for small and large businesses is ‘not knowing’ what you don’t know. The danger lies in those ’unknown unknowns’ to use a famous phrase. For me, this aligns with the Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘stat’ that 60% of businesses fail after 3 years. The reason? The Australian Securities and Investments Commission reported that 44% of business suffered from poor strategic management. Not ‘knowing’ what’s involved in your strategic challenge can seriously derail your business goals, hopes and dreams, although admittedly it does make for an interesting ride!
The other big lesson I’ve learned about failure is that as humans we (myself included) sometimes over complicate things unnecessarily. Keeping things simple is often the hardest challenge for some. The old adage is true – the simplest ideas are often the best ideas.
The more I pondered over my failures the more the insights came. I attended events that explored failure (F*ckedUp Melbourne in Richmond is well recommended) to learn lessons, gain insights and see the patterns of failure. I learned that when engaging with brand specialists or marketers, the problem many businesses experience is that while they often don’t really know where to start (or even admit to it), they can also easily fall into the trap of over-complicating their brand and marketing needs with enthusiastic talk of online strategies, tactics and the dollars attached to them.
Another problem I noticed is that we can get overwhelmed with complex measures and metrics, big data and sophisticated online algorithms that pump out statistics and spread sheets that we can pour over and dissect. To most business owners its just confusing, intimidating and expensive – but I find these practices just distract us from the core focus; the source of our original business challenge and that is our desire, our purpose – to solve customer problems.
My moment of clarity lay in the revelation that you can try too hard. If you want to keep your head, then keep it simple. When it comes to brand, design or marketing your business, before we even talk tactics or strategies or invest any dollars, your purpose is to get truly focused on who you’re actually trying to talk to. This helps to counter any concerns for poor strategic management – if you’re laser-focused on your customer you’ll remain relevant so you can’t go too far wrong, so keep your eyes on your customers.
‘Keeping it simple’ lies in this simple truism: Marketing Rule #1: Know your customer! I’d add a caveat however: its not just any customer but your ‘ideal’ customer. Clarity is key. This is easier said than done but the key for any business or entrepreneur is focus and clarity.
My failure helped me to recognise the simple need and insight for businesses and business owners to truly know who their ideal customer is on a far deeper level. From this insight the ‘Avatar’ workshop was created: a workshop designed to help businesses and business owners get laser-focused on their ‘ideal’ customer – to help make sense of their brand and marketing activities by simply removing complexity and focusing first and foremost on your own ‘ideal’ customer.
Make this focus on your ‘ideal’ customer your first brand or marketing step before you engage in any brand or marketing activity. It’s also the secret to sustainable brand and marketing growth because focusing on your ‘ideal’ customer becomes the yardstick or compass for any form of future strategic communication. If an activity or message doesn’t speak to your ‘Avatar’, then simply don’t do it and spare your money, time and resources.
Even seasoned marketers get blindsided by this first step with the onus on ‘online’, tactics and strategies. Its not surprising businesses get the wrong focus and the results to reflect it – it pays to keep the customer in mind at all times. ‘If we focus on them, they will come’ is perhaps an old cliche to use. Entrepreneurs are visionary and awesome at the big picture, yet they struggle to connect their idea to their specific customer. Wanting to be ‘everything to everyone’ is their Achilles heal. The problem for businesses and business owners is they get distracted by the everyday demands and the pressure to deliver and perform. This in turn takes the focus off the customer and onto processes and systems, which while important for building businesses, unravels all the hard work done by removing and losing focus from the brand values, the core purpose and the human element. Balance is key.
The solution?
Laser-focus and clarity on your ‘ideal’ customer is one solution to sustainable brand and marketing growth. My advice? If you want to keep your eye on the ball in business, keep your eye on your ‘ideal’ customer with the ‘Avatar’ Workshop. If you want to dig deep to get the ‘golden’ customer insights, get ‘My Avatar’ and get your business marketing smarter for you.
——————————————————————————————————————————————-
As always I hope you gained some benefit by learned something new or useful.
As The Brand Entrepreneur, my focus is on helping savvy entrepreneurs and busy business owners deeply define their ‘ideal’ customer with The ‘Avatar’ Workshop to build brands and smarter marketing results. I’m passionate and focused on creating brand & design assets that help brands get ‘in sync’ and connected to ‘customers they care’ about.