Life as a female business owner is nothing if not challenging – but that’s what we signed up for, right?!
Unfortunately, some challenges are easier for us to handle than others. While you may enjoying figuring out how to work well from home, sorting out your business finances or even finding your first employee, inevitably dealing with disappointment and frustrations are part of the deal too.
Whether it’s missing out on landing that client that you really wanted to work with, or being turned down for financing, disappointment is real, and it’s a hard thing to deal with – especially when your business feels like your baby and has taken so much hard work to get off the ground.
How do you use these experiences in a positive way? Can you work through your bad feelings and take something good from the situation?
Let’s chat…
Have Your Moment of Self-Pity!
It’s okay to indulge the feelings of disappointment – I strongly believe it’s healthier to let yourself feel crap rather than trying to sweep them your feelings the carpet. If you don’t deal with anger and hurt properly, it can become toxic over time and you may even end up finding that they spiral to the point where you need supportive therapy or worse, give up all together.
So allow yourself to feel what is natural! Indulge yourself a little, but if you have problems drawing a line under things, it’s also good to set a time limit. Tell yourself you have a week to lick your wounds, and then you need to move on.
Rethink Your Picture of Yourself
When we suffer a setback, it’s important not to let the situation taint our sense of self. You previously thought of yourself as a kick-ass entrepreneur with a game changing idea. Being told no a few times shouldn’t be a cause to shake that! Bad things happen to good people after all – just because this opportunity wasn’t the right fit, doesn’t mean that your business is doomed to fail. Easier said than done but you need to see each set-back as a learning experience. If you don’t feel positive, you can ‘fake it til you make it’ – studies show that telling yourself something repeatedly rewires the neural pathways in your brain and it eventually becomes true. Perception is reality!
Change The Story
Instead of calling it a failure or a disappointment, use better language to brand it a ‘curveball’ or a ‘learning moment’. Think rationally about what you can take from the situation and use as building blocks for a stronger pitch next time.
Be brave enough to ask that client for feedback, or seek tips from the financier who said ‘no’ to your business pitch. You may just find more positives than you thought, which will give you a boost, and the takeaways for things you can improve upon? They are the most valuable insights of all!
Change your PITCH
Try re-wording or re-shaping the way you pitch your product or service. Pitching truly is an art form and doesn’t come naturally to many people, myself included. So if people aren’t picking up what you’re putting down you may need to have a play around with how you’re selling yourself.
I truly believe that success and failure is a mindset you choose.
So what will it be?
