Did your first ever attempt to start a business fail? Has it changed the way you look at life? Most importantly, are you having second thoughts about going back to that nine to five job? If your answer to all these questions is a big fat yes, stop! Stop right there. We want you to go back. Not in time, in your mind, duh! Think of that time when you planned to quit your corporate job just to do something you love. That time when people criticised you and told you that quitting your job was the stupidest thing you’ll ever do. You didn’t listen to them, did you? You were courageous enough to step out of your comfort zone and do something you’ve always wanted to do.
When nothing stopped you from taking the best decision of your life, why is this one failure stopping you from accomplishing what you’re capable of? Is this failure big enough to change the course of your life? No! Not at all.
Additional Reading: 6 Tips To Save Money In Day-To-Day Life
We know it’s easier said than done and you might have a lot of financial obligations that are forcing you to quit the dream of building a successful startup and making you step back into the corporate world. You might be thinking that these words are not going to help you repay all those loans that you’ve taken. You might even be thinking of closing this tab and going back to look for job opportunities, but don’t you think your startup deserves another chance? Don’t you think your dreams deserve a chance to breathe? If yes, we’re here to help you out with ways to deal with your startup failure. Just take a deep breath and read on.
- Do a SWOT analysis for your product/service
Before worrying about the future of your startup and planning to shut it down for good, take a sheet of paper and do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for your product/service. This health check is essential for you to identify the weak points in your projects. And unless you know what’s not working for you, you’ll never be able to find out what’d work.
- Hunt for investors
Once you’re done analysing the strengths and weaknesses of your product, it’s time to hunt for investors. Find out the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of your product and pitch it to the right people at the right time. To get yourself out of all financial troubles you need to work on your product, make it better, and then start hunting for investors accordingly.
- Look for the right loans
In case you fail to find an investor or your project still needs more funds after finding an investor, you need to take a loan. There are a lot of options available all around. The crucial part is to choose the right loan that’d work wonders for your startup. While choosing, you need to ensure that you get the right interest rate. There are two types of interest rates—fixed and floating. Ensure that you know what you’re opting for.
- Make a financial record
If you’re dealing with a lot of financial stress, you need to document your spending to see where your money is going. This might sound like a complex thing to do and you might even find it boring, but unless you know your necessary and unnecessary expenses, you’ll never be able to plan better. The most important part of pulling yourself out of a financial mess is learning to plan your finances better. Once you start doing that, half of your work is done.
- Learn to prioritise
Since you’re going through a financial crunch and are already stressed out, don’t let your low bank balance give you another reason to worry. Know where you need to spend immediately and see what can wait. This is the only way to manage your limited funds in the best way possible. For instance, paying your employees on time is a priority; ordering that new office furniture isn’t.
- Talk to the experts
Depending on your field, you must get in touch with experts to see how you can improve your situation. Learning from others is an important part of building something successful from scratch. Unless you know what all the things that could go wrong are and what preventive measures you can take, you won’t be able to stay prepared, financially.
- Build more connections
This doesn’t mean that you need to add tons of unknown people on LinkedIn. You need to step out of your comfort zone and talk to people who can make a difference to your startup. This might mean taking the first step and initiating a conversation with people in your network, attending more events relevant to your business, etc. Whatever it takes, try and make as many connections as possible. You never know which one will come in handy at the most desperate times.
It’s just a bad phase of your life, nothing more. Just hang in there and do whatever you can to save the biggest dream of your life—your startup.
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