It happens, and it’s an unavoidable part of life, but accepting that reality does not mean we have to be held back by our failures.

The age-old concept of learning from our mistakes is critical to future success and can be best described as the art of “failing forward,” turning what could have been deemed as a negative situation into an opportunity to make change and enact positivity.

Rather than attempting to move on by simply pretending your failure didn’t happen, it’s far better to embrace it in your quest to move forward.

Ignoring it means you are not addressing the reasons behind the mistakes you made and leaves you open to repeating them in the future.

While it may be painful to revisit them, being able to deconstruct them will ensure you’re better prepared when a similar situation rears its head in the future.

Facilitating a mindset of growth in which failing is okay can help create belief and confidence to attack difficult situations in the future.

Accepting and even encouraging failure as part of your process will help you expand your mind to be able to tackle greater problems with inventiveness as you move forward.

An Olympic gymnast can only perfect their somersaults by trying and failing until they’ve learned how to successfully navigate each move!

Lastly, allowing room for failure gives you the freedom to experiment and get creative.

Ideas and concepts you try might not always yield success, but allowing that space to try new things without pressure will help you land on new solutions that you might not have considered previously.

Manage other people’s stress

There’s a lot of stress in striving for success, both yours and others’. If you’re the leader in this venture, people are going to look to you for guidance. Stress can help things get done, but if you let it break you down, you won’t get far enough to fuel up on the next road. The trick is to separate the feelings from the job and set a good example for your team.

You’re giving people an opportunity

Many people think if they build it, the customers will come. In reality, you need to do a lot more work on who your customer base is and how you’ll be helping them with your product or service. You’re giving them the opportunity to be a part of something.

Don’t back down from a challenge

All that stress comes from somewhere, and it might be a challenge. Don’t stop at the first hurdle. Keep going. Even if you make mistakes, you’ll know what you need to do better next time.

Keep making friends

Networking is a buzzword all entrepreneurs know, but what people tend to forget is it’s about creating strong relationships. If you see networking as a way to get what you can out of people without a lasting rapport, your business won’t get very far. These are people with similar interests and passions as yours. Present yourself as valuable to know, not know of.

Check bad links
Something tedious we can all forget to do, make sure you’re regularly checking that all your pages are live. Bad links can put a damper on your search score, so keep them fresh and 404 free.

Delete out-of-date posts
If your website has a blog or a space for changing content, make sure you go through it once a month and delete posts that have out-of-date promotions or aren’t doing anything for your Google rating. Evergreen query-based posts will always help, but anything outside of that should probably go.

Keep your information fresh
Maybe you moved offices a little while ago and forgot to update your contact information. Perhaps a member of staff got a promotion and their title needs updating. It could even be that you have changed what services you offer. Keeping up to date with these small things keeps you looking professional and ahead of your game.

Simplify
We have a tendency to overload our websites. You probably don’t need 10 pages to describe that one service. Keep it streamlined and clean looking, and your clients will come to you for information.

It’s on you

Time to get tough with yourself. If you have a crappy client, you have to take responsibility for that. It’s your fault, not the client’s. That can be a hard pill to swallow, especially if they seem to be the ones making crazy decisions, but you took them on, and you have to finish what you started. Use the red flags they showed you to make a better decision in the future.

Qualify your clients

Having certain qualifications in place before you accept a new client is one way you can be sure they’re ready to work with you. Try creating a list of things a potential client must show before you agree to work with them. A big budget isn’t one.

Use your gut

You’re not sure if they’re a good fit but they’re offering more than your rate? Use your gut. If you don’t think you’ll be able to work well with them on first meeting, take your own advice. You’ll thank yourself later.

A win for you is a win for them

If you don’t think they’re a good fit for you, they shouldn’t be spending their money on you either. Do you know someone else they could work better with or a different kind of service they’re not aware of? Let them down and offer an alternative if you can. That way, you’ll keep the bridge intact should you need to cross it again.

Set boundaries

This is a difficult one for any type of relationship yet also the most important. Be clear on hours, rate of pay, project length, and amendment procedures. If you’re not clear, it means they’re not clear, and you could end up doing more than you bargained for.