Monday, October 13, 2008

OK, Let's Go There--Why Did My Business Fail?

I haven't really wanted to think about this. I was an independent consultant for 7 years.

So what happened? Why couldn't I pay my taxes? Why did I have to borrow money for business trips and computer equipment?

I can't blame the economy.

I can only blame myself.

I'm a procrastinator. I wait until the last minute to do a project. I do it well, but it may be late.

I put off billing my clients. Stupid, but I always felt somewhere down deep that billing them invited criticism of my work--kind of like having a performance appraisal every time you turn something in.

I was isolated. My clients didn't have time to participate as a team in my projects. If they had that time, they would have done what they needed internally, without me.

I wasted time. I wasn't aggressive enough about looking for new work. I got really good at Suduko.

I think I can say that nobody who ever hired me was sorry they did. But I didn't value myself highly enough.

And this effected my business, and ultimately my family.

What was I thinking?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Polly, wow.

"I didn't value myself highly enough"

You know, this is something that I struggle with every single day as a freelances. Every. Single. Day.

I compete with China and India for nearly every job, and a whole host of other amateurs besides! But when it did come time for me to ask for more money, I got it easily because I always do my best to do a good job.

I'll tell you, if you can walk away from your business truly understanding that one little thing, then my friend, you have not failed at all. Not by a long shot.

And you absolutely should consider going back to it once you've recovered financially, and developed good credit habits again.

Place that much value on yourself too - if it's what you want for your life, don't let one failure (however magnificent) stop you from having your dream.

"From failure you learn! From success? Not so much. "

Connie