Harsh Lessons: Real Entrepreneurs Share Why They Failed Brutally

Monica January 27, 2023

Follow The Marketing Numbers

Without marketing your business, how will anyone ever find it? This entrepreneur didn’t follow the marketing channels or the numbers it said were working, and because of it, their business failed brutally. They were set on building a blog even though all their sales success came from influencer marketing. They admitted that if they had to do it over, they would have put everything they could into the marketing channels that worked. You live and learn. At least this person has a vision for their next business venture and what they’ll do differently (via bputano).

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Don’t Focus On Old Customers

When a business is too focused on the past, it cannot grow. That’s exactly what this entrepreneur did. Because of it, their business failed brutally. After starting an independent engineering consulting firm that was made up of only them, they tried to get their old customers to pay them and avoided looking for new customers. An art collective agreed to pay him a flat rate for a job that took him a short amount of time to do and he was never paid. This same experience happened several more times before they ended up dropping the whole thing and working for someone else. Their time may have been wasted but at least now they know to focus on present customers rather than deadbeats customers from the past (via Optimized_Orangutan).

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One-Man Band

Running a business is one thing. Running a business completely by yourself is something else, and a lot harder than working with a good team. This Reddit user convinced themself to quit their job and become a one-man band IT technician. In reality, it was an excuse, because they needed to quit working to grieve the death of their father. They tried to force a project that wasn’t aligned with their current mental state. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s important to keep your mental and physical health as your number one priority when starting a business. They spent a month before developing a drug habit before getting their act together. At least they managed to turn their entire life around, learn from the experience, and start over (via Gaunts).

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Not Enough Money

You can’t run a business without investing money. It’s just as important as the business itself. This Reddit user failed brutally after learning they didn’t have enough money to operate the first year at a loss. Even though they could’ve run their business, they would have starved as a result. In regards to one-year projections, don’t forget your own personal salary (via Reddit).

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Jumped Ship At The Right Time

This Reddit user managed to get out of a bad deal at the right time. It wasn’t their business, but they were the supervisor for an entrepreneur. They made them a lot of money, and immediately afterward, noticed the owner started disappearing little by little. Suddenly, he was seen in photos in China, Greece, South America, while claiming he was on work trips even though they didn’t have any clients out of the country. A year later, the owner was caught embezzling money from the investors and pocketing the money. He was forced to close the doors (via brazenbologna).

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