What I learned from my failed business

Embracing failure as a path to growth and wisdom. Your candid retrospective on the t-shirt business venture resonates with many of us. Atleast you learned many things on your journey building it.

I think we've all launched a T-shirt business at some point in our journey ;)

The way I look at it, you gave it a go! It’s better to fail than not to give it a try and just fantasize years later that you should’ve, would’ve, could’ve built this or that idea into a business.

I too tried selling custom t-shirts as my first jump into entrepreneurship (many many years ago).

Thanks for sharing your learnings. It's hard to predict what could have happened if you had stuck it out for longer, but it seems it was a good experience nonetheless. Also sometimes you have to quit what you're doing to move on to something better.

As you mentioned in the blog post, it's critical you understand the problem you are trying to solve. This was one of the top mistakes I made while building EnVsion.

Best of luck with whatever you are pursuing now!

As someone said before, Failure is a good teacher. Also, I just love the website!

From my failed business, I've learned invaluable lessons. Firstly, the importance of thorough market research before diving in. Secondly, effective financial management is non-negotiable to sustain operations. Thirdly, clear communication within the team and adapting to customer feedback is vital. Fourthly, embracing flexibility and being prepared for unexpected challenges is a must. Lastly, the experience taught me that persistence and a resilient mindset are essential for both success and growth in any entrepreneurial endeavor.

Hello Rick, I enjoyed reading this blog. I love that you are honest. Sometimes we want something but that's just the dopamine. Once we see the hard work involved, we kinda get less motivated.

I also started a clothing company but it failed😂😂 beautiful lessons learnt. Thank you for sharing.

I have write an article titled Failure and Success is Part of Success . Its talked about why failure is necessary for success.

Failure teaches you something but not how to win. So we could say that failure don't really help you get the money but at the same time it unavoidable.

You can have the best plan in the world there is very good chance you will fail. That's why speed is very important when doing business.

You need to fail as much as possible, learn as much as possible, by moving as fast as possible and after you succeed, you want to keep the money to yourself as much as possible because the business will fucked up eventually. Check out this article : When Building MVP, Speed is the Focus

It is unavoidable cycle , fail > fail > win > fail

That's why you want to move as fast as possible and then exit with money and invest in something else or enjoy the money.

So the lesson here: Speed is ultimate determination for success in business

Great lessons your learned there! Thank you for sharing your story, I enjoyed it 😊

The business may have failed, but you haven't failed, and I'm sure you'll be able to build on what you've learned and do even greater things.

Maybe you don't know how to succeed, but you know how to avoid failure.

Thanks for sharing, Rick.

100% agree with this:
" I based decisions on my own wants when I should’ve been focused on potential customers."

It's all about finding a solution to a pain-point and adding value to the customer.
-Ben

After retry, you can establish your business by understanding the earlier mistakes.

It's a good thing when we can learn from our mistakes.
So what are you going to do ? Are you going to let that idea/spark die ? :)

Pedro