I'm a huge advocate for life long learning through the knowledge of other people, books, live courses, audio or online courses. I do something every single day to increase my knowledge and learning. However I find that the biggest learning curves are through applying, failing and readjusting the knowledge. Whenever something does not work and there is money lost or business lost, I find that I get more than the loss back once it has been re-adjusted through my own experience. Some of the mistakes I have made were - purchasing properties when zoning policies changed (on the day of settlement) so that subdividing plans fell through and we had to sell at a loss, lots of business mistakes, marketing mistakes. Success can sometimes be proportional to how many times you have failed. Anyone want to share some of the failures they have had along the way and how it's helped improve things at present?
Any time I find myself in a stressful situation in my business, I ask myself what I can put in place to ensure this never happens again. Over time, my business has become much more efficient and has more and more small but meaningful processes and policies in place to ensure as flawless an experience as possible - at least as far as the things I can control go.
I agree - no sooner have I nailed one area that the next focus area reveals itself. But that's just part and parcel of a growing business, I think - if there were no new challenges it would mean I've plateaued and probably need to start actively looking for new ways to expand, grow and learn.
One trap people shouldn't fall into is changing their business/systems due to a PITA client. No good punishing all other clients due to one clients behaviour. Eg, booked in a plumber to start the underground work a few weeks ago. He wanted a large deposit due to being the end of the year. Never had this before. His reason was that he was burnt last Xmas (non payment). I thought it was poor form applying this to a (ontime) paying customer.
Totally agree - I meant more the processes I can put in place behind the scenes to make sure the client experience is as flawless and stress-free as possible. Not so much to protect myself from getting ripped off, as to protect my clients from losing properties/deposits/their hair. Things can get pretty stressful at times and if I can absorb the majority of that through internal processes/systems that's a win for everyone.
I think another good lesson in failing is realising that the outcome was not as bad as we thought it would be and that life goes on - the more we fail (and learn) the less we fear it. nothing lasts forever - good nor bad
Nice thread Xenia What does not kill you makes you stronger. I am a big believer in getting your hands dirty. Mistakes can be made simply because "you don't know what you don't know"..... does that make sense? You can take advice from experts, and sometimes the so called experts are not actually giving you the best advice. But if you don't give it a go you may end up like most people...... JOB (just over broke). I have learnt so much from my mistakes, and just keep learning. I think the danger is not growing, you can never stop fine tuning..... enough of a rant from me
