Learning to grow and move on from our past business mistakes

Avoid Business Mistakes

The opportunity for business failure is as prevalent as the opportunity for success, yet without taking the risk of making mistakes, it is unlikely that you will ever make any headway in really getting your business off the ground.

Procurement consultant Naomi Clews talks about turning her own business mistakes around to ensure they had a positive impact on her business and shares her 3 top tips for turning the negative into a positive. ​

When I started my consulting business in 2016 I was very naïve. I would offer a FREE consultation to anybody who asked.

I thought it was great that my phone was always ringing until I realised it was a distraction and most calls were initiated by my competitors.

This realisation made me shrewd. Turning a negative into a positive enabled me to learn and push my business in a more progressive direction.

My knowledge was extensive and extremely valuable, I would no longer give it away for FREE.

I realised just how little my competitors knew about the services they were offering to their clients.

It provided me with the confidence to go out and knock on the doors of global brands and multinational organisations.

With my new found confidence as an expert in this new market, I knew what I was talking about, and could add real value to my clients bids, tenders and proposal writing.

It wasn't long before I landed my first global client, achieved a 100% tender score for them, and cemented my future business success in the tender writing service sector.

So what top tips can I share from my experience and learning from my past business mistakes? 

#1 Know what you want to achieve for yourself and your business, but be prepared to pivot 
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I always knew I wanted to share my procurement knowledge and experience with my clients, but the direction I initially steered my business in, was a mistake.

Once I changed my focus, and followed a different path, I succeeded in building my brand and reputation as a public procurement expert but in an entirely different way to the one I envisaged when I started out in business.

​#2 – Ask why your previous mistakes happened and learn from them
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We are always looking for ways to improve our business. Many mistakes we make whilst starting out e.g. rushed business decisions, risky investments or an association with other people or organisations which are unsuccessful, can be very bad for our business.

Learning and growing from a mistake is what distinguishes a successful business from an unsuccessful business. 

​It can be difficult to relive past mistakes; for example, you may not want to relive a previous tender loss or contract you lost out on, so as not to dwell on what can’t be changed and to move forward.

But if you stop and analyse the reasons for your own failure, you can try to change your existing beliefs and existing behaviours to avoid making the same mistake again.

#3 – Mitigate mistake making
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We must accept our mistakes as a thing of the past, but we must also avoid repeating the same mistakes again.

To achieve this we can create a mistake mitigation plan to determine action(s) we will take to prevent the mistakes from happening twice.
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Putting plans in place, particularly if the error hasn’t been addressed, is the best way to tackle potential pitfalls which are sure to trip us up and push us behind again if left unresolved.​

In Summary
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We are all human and we all make mistakes.

​Taking time to reflect on past business mistakes and manifesting new intentions to achieve our business goals, is a healthy activity for any business owner.
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Whilst reflecting and acknowledging our mistakes, we can all hopefully move forward and be more successful in the future.

About The Author
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Naomi Clews is the owner of Lichfield based procurement consulting firm Naomi Clews Consultancy Limited.

​Naomi supports clients in bidding for and winning UK Government contracts. Find out more here.