In the blink of an eye, that which you worked so hard for can be dissolved, leaving you out in the cold. And while you may think I’m referring to a marriage between a man and a woman, this is actually a business blog, so I am referring to a business failure. I used to say that the failure of my network marketing business was like a divorce and I wasn’t ready to be remarried. So I went on to school in 2001, getting my MBA in 2009. You may know this if you’ve followed my blog for a while. You may also know that I formed an aimless corporation in 2008. I wanted to start a business again but wasn’t sure exactly what. I thought, well maybe I’ll start my own network marketing product company, but I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to do.
Since 2008 I have taken on some consulting, here and there, but in 2010 my decision to go into consulting full time was solidified with the pink slip. I was laid off from my employer and I had enough luck to land, the next Monday, at another company doing full-time consulting. Then I verbally signed a contract with a friend and did a few hours for him every once in a while. This contract was dissolved a bit later, I guess you shouldn’t work for friends. We were heading into the winter and it was the busy time for my other client, so I just went full time with them through March. March is now approaching and I’m considering asking for another year, which I really don’t think is going to be a problem. So I will be full time in my own business for more than a year as of June. That is better than I did in my first business, when I was full time for about 6 months before I went back to work. The difference this time is that I am “working”, i.e. selling time for money, so it doesn’t feel like I’m working for myself.
When we had our first business, it was a lot of work for very little initial return. But by the time I quit my job, there was very little to do and plenty of money. It was kind of weird. I wasn’t prepared for the change. After a few weeks, I knew I had to go back to work. This was before the beginning of the end; I knew I wasn’t ready to be flooded with time. But before I had quit my job I was so burned out. We had worked our tails off, my mind was mush, very little sleep for a couple of years, virtually could not do my job any more. Six weeks later, I couldn’t stand all the time. Then within 6 months, virtually no more business. It was painful. I was very bitter and I “never” wanted to do it again. We put in all that work and it was destroyed in a flash.
A lot has changed since then. In addition to my consulting, I am starting to build a network marketing business again. This with a company I’ve been associated with for 18 years. I signed up when I was 28 years old and did a little bit, but when success wasn’t instantaneous, I quit trying. But I did renew the membership every year. Then we started our “first” business in 1997, our first successful business at least. So I came back to my original network marketing company full guns last year and am actually doing pretty well. It’s a lot of work but it’s growing. I’m happy to be doing it again, and this time I don’t think I’ll have problems with the company. It’s a little weird to be using the same muscles again after all this time, but the memory is still there, and I feel like I’m actually pretty good at it.
Have you ever had a major business failure, and what did you do to come back from it?