HOW TO BECOME A TOTAL FAILURE

Unfortunately, success doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, many entrepreneurs achieve success by learning from their business mistakes. Although ex-advertising entrepreneur Charles N. Jamison Jr. never achieved the success he had hoped for when he launched his advertising agency in 1987, he did admit to his business mistakes. Let’s take a look at a few of those mistakes and see which of the 10 rules for failure Charles’s mistakes fit into.

In the following excerpt from The Free Library, Charles explained how he tried to sell a product but failed:

“We made pitch after pitch presenting data to marketing managers about the black consumer presence within their brand products. Instead of giving me the business, they would (a) praise me for giving them better insight into and a more sophisticated understanding of the black consumer market, and (b) tell me that despite this compelling story, they didn’t feel the need to target this consumer base.”

Charles discovered what he did wrong when he and his partner tried to sell their product. “We looked at the tremendous growth in targeted black advertising and assumed we could expand the marketplace even further. What we failed to see was that most of the African-American ad agencies were not growing much, Charles confessed.

I would say this business mistake fits with rule #1: Resist learning anything new that could lead to more responsibility. If Charles and his partner had taken more time to study their market better, then they might have been able to sell their product. Sometimes you have to take the time to learn more about your target customers before you attempt to sell them a product or service. Taking the time to get to know your potential customers will pay off in the long run.

Charles also admitted he and his partner failed because they stopped marketing their business. “The breakup in our partnership happened during 1990 and 1991, just before the recession, and the really tough times hit. Nonetheless, my partner and I were so distracted dealing with interpersonal issues that we had no time for marketing to new clients,” Charles explained.

What rule would you place this business mistake under? If you said rule #9: Do the least that’s necessary for success — Be all you can be but do as little as possible, then you’re correct. Again, Charles did own up to his mistake, and his advice: “Market, market, market. No matter how well you’ve done before or how well you’re doing now, keep that new business coming in the door.”

To read the rest of Charles’s business mistakes and his advice, visit The Free Library. While you’re reading all of his mistakes, see if you can determine which of the 10 rules for failure each of his mistakes fit into. Feel free to share your observations in the comment area below.

Misti Sandefur, an avid freelance writer, novelist and blogger, enjoys writing articles, short stories, e-books, print books, personal essays and Web copy for regional and national publications, publishers, book producers, businesses, nonprofit organizations and fellow writers who have too much on their plates and need assistance. Furthermore, she’s publisher and editor of the Coffee Break for Writers e-zine, and the author of two books, which are published under Misti Jackson. To find out more about Misti, visit her on the web and at her Life of a Writer blog.