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Learn to Fail Fast
I recently heard an interesting piece of business advice that really stuck with me. It stuck with me because it was something I always did, but I have just never heard it said like that.
That advice is “Learn to fail fast”.
Let me explain:
You are probably thinking “Why would I want to fail?”. No one wants to fail, but if you are going to fail you need to learn to do it quickly in order to get the data (results) that you can use to gradually improve.
No matter what you do, whether it is trying a new form of advertising or offering some kind of new deal. You need to get the results quickly so you know to either never do it again, or take what you learned and tweak it a little bit so that it does work.
A good example of this is Google Adwords. When you first setup Google Adwords advertising, you type in a bunch of computer related keywords that you hope customers will search for and after a few days, you will begin to see some results. Some of those keywords will work great, but the majority of them will probably work very poorly. Now you have the choice to either get rid of them completely, or see that they do have the potential to work well if you bid higher.
Even though the majority of them failed, at least you now have some data to go by.
I strongly believe that success is a series of failures. A huge amount of things didn’t work for me in my business. I spent a lot of money trying out various different forms of advertising that resulted no calls. However, gaining that information was invaluable because I simply learned what didnt work. After many advertising failures, a few little gems popped up that appeared worked well and as a result I increased my advertising in those areas trying similar variants.
After my first 6 months or so of advertising failures, I had weeded out the ineffective advertising and I was left with just about all of my advertising being effective.
I put my ads out, failed fast, analyzed the data, stopped doing what didn’t work and tried other forms of advertising until I found a winner. Learn to fail fast.
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If only we had the advertising budget to fail with. Any advice on what types of advertising worked, what didn’t, and why?
Its funny that you mentioned Adwords. It can be a very expensive failure if you do not set it up correctly (daily limit set to high). Also Adwords does give out coupons to people if you are just starting out so watch out for those (50 to 100 dollars).
That is an interesting concept. It does make sense that if you have to fail then to do it quick. I was also add to fail cheaply if you are talking about spending money.
MI Computer Repair, the best advertising of mine was the local free weekly paper. I could target it into certain areas (high income areas, nothing personal to the low income residents). It stayed around the house all week and it was free so everyone got it. Being that its a local paper, people look into it for local tradesman so it worked well.
Yellow Pages didnt work. I guess you either need to go hard or go home with the Yellow Pages
Letterbox drops brought in a few clients (again, in high income areas) but generally not worth it.
Adwords can work well because its targeted.
Tried a variety of other small local publications, many of them didnt work at all. The best one was still the free local weekly newspaper.
In response to comment #1…
I have used google adwords and it was very exensive. I suggest organic (SEO) vs paid inclusion in google. Another big thing is Free business directories like merchant circle and hotfrog.
I fail almost every day and the next day I wake up and look forward to another failure. I just wish I had failed much earlier in life (and wasn’t afraid to do so), I would have been further ahead in my computer repair business today. When if comes to change in your business, customers are usually very understanding. Go ahead and raise your prices! Go ahead and redo your website! Try something new and off the wall, you will learn in the process.
have you ever tried a sticker advertising????
So far the only print advertising I’ve tried was our local valpak. It failed miserably and I wasted about $500, so I’ve been a little hesitant to try more print advertising. Adwords has worked better, and I’m glad I put branding on my car whether it really has gotten me more business or not. I’ll have to look into the local newspaper and give it a shot, though. Like you said, better learn to fail quickly :)
Another method of promotion where you even get paid is doing some teaching courses at the local community center. You’ll get referrals and it helps establish yourself in the area. Long term benefit. I did some internet training courses for some seniors. Very painful but helpful long term
Sage advise. If it doesn’t work, do not beat your head into a bloody (and expensive)pulp against the wall because of that, but take positive action. Learning to fail fast is key to not throwing good money after bad.
I always recommend a blend of paid for ads and organic SEO, with the paid for stuff being reduced as your organic rankings and traffic grows.
I have found that most newspapers advertisements are a waste of money. I think people who use computers don’t spend much time reading a newspaper. One local newspaper here with a small circulation and published only once a week seems to give me better results than the high circulation daily newspaper. I think the high volume newspaper has to much info for people to handle. I’ll agree that the Yellow Pages are expensive and don’t get results. Living in a rural area I’ve found that business cards and word of mouth have had the best results so far. Just got a coupon for free AdWords and will give that a try.
I tried Adwords and Facebook adverts both of which were a complete failure, the bounce rate was terrible yet I tried a variety of keywords and adverts :(
I have found leafleting the best way to advertise.
yea, i’ve wasted alot of free credits on adwords, it’s how I found out about this site, apparently my ads were showing here… not exactly the ‘small business owners looking for it support’ website i wanted advertisements on.
I have used google adwords and it was very exensive. I suggest organic (SEO) vs paid inclusion in google. Another big thing is Free business directories like merchant circle and hotfrog.
great information thank you1
wow, I think this is one piece of advice that many new business managers need in order to turn their failures into some great future successes…
“Fix My Stuff” comments that computers users tend to spend less time reading newspapers and I tend to agree. So, with that in mind, we have to ask ourselves where are computer-savy people getting their information from – say when they need their computer repaired?
Do they turn to the yellow pages or the local newspaper? I don’t think so.
Our newest client did a search on her cell phone and chose us because of the reviews that she found. Her computer was broken so she couldn’t do a “Google” search.
As all of us are probably aware by now, the best advertisement doesn’t cost a cent… it’s word of mouth, and in today’s world, word of mouth also becomes testimonials found on your own website or on Yahoo Local, Yelp, Google, Linked In and Hot Frog.
When we go the extra mile for a client we ask that they write a testimonial on one of those sites.
By the way, clients who promise to do a testimonial often mean to but don’t seem to get around-to-it, so, consider guiding them to the appropriate website as they are finishing up testing out their fixed computer in your shop and ask if they can do it on the spot or bookmark the website for doing it later in the day. Don’t forget to remind the client about leaving a testimonial when your make your follow-up call a week later to see how the repaired system is working out for them. A follow-up call is a good way to keep your name in front of the client, it shows that you care about them and reinforces their opinion of your company as one that is looking after their needs.
On another note… Great Website, another local computer tech turned us on to your website this week. He reads you each day along with /. and others as I do.