I’m breaking down the 3 things failure can teach us about our business, ourselves, and how failure makes your beauty business stronger.
What is the F word that everybody hates but it’s something everybody needs in order to know when you’re winning? Its Failure. Let’s talk about how it can make your beauty business stronger.
The reality is, nobody wants to fail, especially when it comes to your beauty biz. That’s because failing can result in losing money, and lots of it. Many of us take a high risk in getting our business off the ground. I want to help you recognize the failures in business and how it can actually make your business stronger.
For example, my goal for 2021 was to launch HairB&B Podcast. I would have loved to have all my sessions prerecorded. That way I could publish each week so I could have all the amazing content. However, my failure was that I only produced 5 episodes. all year! My win is that I’ve had thousands of downloads on each episode and I haven’t even promoted this podcast really. So yay for organic reach!
Could I have done more on the podcast? Sure. Does it pay my bills? No. So my priorities shifted. But doing these are a ton of fun, and my listeners so far really enjoy the content. So thank you for being here and supporting me.
Now, If you have been in the beauty biz for a good portion of your life, you know failure all too well. Congrats! You survived it. You have recognized that failing isn’t always a bad thing and you’ve learned failure makes your beauty business stronger. As a matter of fact, you know that failing has helped you both professionally and personally in your business.
If you are new to the beauty business, you may have already experienced some forms of failure. In ways, for example, like doing your first bad haircut or maybe you had your first terrible customer experience. But you haven’t felt the failures of the business side like filing your taxes wrong. Oops!
I’m here to tell you we all make mistakes because we are human and you will continue to make them. But this old head here is hopefully going to give you some perspective on failure, so you don’t have to be so hard on yourself.
Let’s break down why the F word isn’t such a bad word after all.
FAILURE TEACHES YOU WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T IN YOUR BEAUTY BUSINESS
We all know that feeling of putting color on someone’s hair and it just doesn’t take. Now let’s just throw in a super picky person, cause you know that’s the perfect scenario for a shitty day. Don’t beat yourself up. Easier said than done but I have literally wallowed in my sadness for days cause my client hated her hair. I would stay up all night thinking about what I could have done differently. And that’s exactly what we need to do! Not the staying up all night part, but logically think about what went wrong, and what we can do next time.
As mentioned before, we all make mistakes. But it’s what we do with those mistakes and how we learn from them.
FAILURE TEACHES YOU TO DEFINE WHAT’S IMPORTANT
You are not going to know what or how you want your business to run until something goes wrong. And when it does go wrong, this is the perfect time to reassess your goals. Make sure that they are still in line with what’s important.
This can come in many forms like how I chose to handle my schedule or customer service. Do I want to work every day and every night? Do I want to be at the mercy of my clients? Or, do I want to create a work-life balance so I don’t get burnt out? If you had an unhappy client, should you redo their hair for free?
FAILURE TEACHES YOU ABOUT YOURSELF
Gosh, isn’t that the truth! Failure causes self-reflection even when you don’t want it to. It just kind of forces itself on you. That’s because, without failure, you will not know when you are winning! Imagine winning all the time… like would you actually enjoy it or even realize how amazing it is to win. It would start to feel like life is supposed to be that way. The harsh reality is that it is full of obstacles and challenges. Failure is what molds you into the amazing human you are.
Failure is what defines your priorities and goals. It makes you realize how resilient you are. It’s what helps you figure out where to go and how to succeed. Overall failure creates new opportunities to become the business owner you want to be.
So I leave you with this:
Now that we are going into the new year, write out all the successes you’ve had, and write out a list of goals. Sounds cliche, I know! Better yet, try setting a goal at something that you may fail at instead, or something that just kind of scares you a little bit. I’m a firm believer in pushing yourself out of your comfort zone for the sake of growth (aka failure) or success! Remember, Failure Makes Your Beauty Business Stronger!
