Failure: A detour on the road to success...

‘One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more
intelligently begin again’.
Henry Ford

The beginning of an exciting journey

Let’s say you’re thinking of starting a business. You’ve come up with a brilliant idea, and your research tells you that the new venture will be a great success. It will be a lot of hard work and you won’t make a million overnight, but those things don’t put you off. You’ve crunched the numbers, and you know that, if it doesn’t work out, you’ll still be able to pay the bills.

You’re onto something good here. You have a well-considered plan. If things work out, the sky is the limit. If they don’t, then hey, it was worth a shot. With everything to gain and little to lose, it's a no brainer...

The inner roadblock

Despite the above, you don’t start taking the steps needed to turn a vision into reality. The thought that you might fail keeps holding you back. After all, four in five small businesses end up failing. Such thoughts are understandable, but don’t let them kill your dream.

Better to try than fail by default

It is better to try and fail than do nothing (and fail by default). And if your business doesn’t work out, then it won’t be the end of the world. You can pick yourself up, learn from the experience, and try other things until you do succeed. It won’t be so much the end of the journey as a fork in the road, taking you in new and interesting directions...

The sweet taste of success

Nick Holzherr had a vision. He wanted to make it easier for people to purchase food recipe ingredients, making online food shopping quicker and more enjoyable.

Nick became a contestant in The Apprentice.  He made it to the final, but was knocked back by Lord Sugar, who asked Nick of his product, “Who could be bothered with it?”. Undeterred and undaunted, Nick has gone on to launch his Whisk app after raising £500,000 from investors.

Interview with Nick Holzherr

Nick spoke with BT Marketing Solutions, and the interview is reproduced with permission:

1.  How did you feel when Lord Sugar rejected your business idea and told you to take it to America?

Anyone who comes up with an idea that isn’t already proven in the market has to be ready for rejection. But trying something brand new can reap big rewards.

Although rejection hurts, I’d done my homework, run the idea past other people and was confident my idea was credible. I was (and still am) confident Whisk would work, so the rejection on the BBC Apprentice didn’t put me off the idea at all.

2.  Do you think we’re forgiving enough of failure or willing to take risks in Britain?

I don't think we're as forward thinking as we could be. We don't see failure as a positive experience that makes us stronger (like the Americans do, for example).

I would say three things about the risk of starting a company:

-    The risk is not as big as you think.
-    It's not risk for risk's sake but a risk/reward calculation. It can be financially rewarding too if you do well.
-    The worst case scenario really isn’t that bad. What have you lost if you don’t make it? And the experience is a great thing to put on your CV.

3.  After The Apprentice you went on to get financial backing elsewhere and have successfully launched your new business. How do you cope with setbacks?

I've never dwelled on rejection too much. You could even say I ignore it a little too easily! I've learned since my university days to listen to negative feedback and try and take on board what the other person is saying, even if they’re not 100% right.

There’s always a lesson you can learn. Maybe there’s a flaw in your business model. Or perhaps it’s just that you’re not explaining your idea well enough.

I think a certain amount of self-confidence (even bordering on arrogance) helps. 

4.  Do you feel that online or technology businesses have a lower risk factor?

A bricks and mortar business is fairly likely to succeed, but it’s unlikely to make you a millionaire. I think a tech business is more likely to fail. But if you make it big, you really make it big. Once a tech business works, it's also much easier to scale.

People forget that online businesses are easy to set up, but you need traffic if you’re going to sell anything. To get traffic you need to either spend money on online advertising or invest a lot of time into growing your traffic organically.

5.  Do you think your previous experiences with starting businesses like QRky and Co-Go Coffee to Go helped when you came to launch Whisk?

Absolutely. The more experience you can get running a business the better you get at it. It's not really something you can learn at business school (though going to one doesn’t hurt). A great way to learn is to get a job at a small start-up where you can see first-hand what goes on.

I've never had that, but I have worked for other people in over ten different jobs ranging from a stint in a call centre to an investment bank role. I also surround myself with experienced mentors who have made it before in online business and have been in the industry longer than I have.

Over to you...

Do you agree with Nick?

Do we have a healthy relationship with business failure in the UK?