Don’t Learn From Your Mistakes!

That’s right, I said don’t learn from your mistakes.

With the availability of information the small business owner has at his or her fingertips, the idea that one must learn from their own mistakes is an antiquated way of thinking.

There is no reason that most learning shouldn’t come from other people’s mistakes instead.

Long gone are the days when we learned by using a trial and error approach to business. Try something, if it didn’t work, well “learn from that mistake” and try something else.

The Internet, books, magazines, and business networks are filled with case studies for the small business owner to learn from so they do not have to make the mistake before understanding a concept or approach will not work.

Here are some examples of more the famous mistakes made by some very large businesses. Apply the lessons from these examples to your business and leverage their blunders into your success.

Case Study #1

Who can forget Windows 98 crashing during a press conference. He actually got the the “blue screen of death” on CNN and in front of a live audience.

The Lesson:

This thirty second clip can provide multitudes of learning opportunity. A little preparation goes a long way. You cannot afford to have users with negative experiences with a new product/service.

Case Study #2

New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter formulation introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship drink Coca-Cola or Coke. New Coke was a flop, and led to Coke reintroducing it’s original Coke formula.

The Lesson:

If you have spent time developing your brand, or have a popular product or service, be very careful how you change it to make it “better”. Coke came out with New Coke to rejuvenate stagnating sales, erroneously thinking that since sales were down the popularity of their flagship product must be waning.

Many times slumping sales is the result of other strategic or operational holes in your business, not necessarily the product itself. Coke should have realized this before they reinvented the wheel.

Case Study #3

A event that handed Starbucks a first place prize in CNN Money’s Dumbest Marketing Moves of the Year, baristas at a few stores were encouraged to send an email to friends and family members with a coupon for a free drink. Anybody see the error in Starbucks ways yet?

I don’t know about you, but I still get emails telling me if I forward them on Bill Gates will give me $100…well that same sort of spreading happened with these emails, and Starbucks very quickly had 1000′s of free drink coupons floating around with no way to contain or track them.

The Lesson:

The old saying, “make sure you don’t write a check your butt can’t cash” probably holds true here. Before you roll out an incentive, coupon, free offer, etc. make sure you know what your maximum spend will be and how far that incentive will go.

Set parameters around the special offer programs, and think through the distribution model so you understand and manage your reach.

Summary

The above examples are just a couple of the 100′s of learning opportunities big businesses present us small business owners everyday.

Do some research when thinking of launching a new marketing campaign, or product, and go out looking for the failures of similar initiatives as opposed to looking for the successes. Start looking at what other companies are doing, and if the marketing, product, or service doesn’t grab your attention ask yourself why, then analyze how you can make sure you’re not incorporating the same elements into your business.

By constructively studying everything that isn’t working in the world of business, and relating it back to your business, you will effectively eliminate most of the costly mistakes you’re likely to make. Thank the Microsoft’s, Starbucks, and Coke’s of the world for making your business choices easier and saving you money!

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Photo Credit: StreetFly JZ

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