Ask HN: Why Did Your Business Fail?

[Tinned_Tuna]

We only hear about the successes, but I would like to know what took your business down. Why did it fail.

Perhaps, by bringing this data together like accident investigation reports, we can find the common thread.

[kirubakaran]

Successful businesses are all alike; every failed business is a failure in its own way.

[Opportunity007]

My business failed because I’m unintelligent, lack business acumen and do not have a good network.

[tinktank]

Be gentle with yourself. Be gentle.

[FaisalAbid]

This is false. It's not about being intelligent, it's about being resilient and open to learning.

Everything starts with 0, and everyone can learn.

I'd be happy to chat with you 1-1 and talk you through this.

[usgroup]

Defs agree. I run my own business and work with other business all the time.

The secret sauce formula is rarely heavily weighted towards general intelligence.

All the dumb things will kill your business way before you have to be the smartest guy in the room . And I think that’s probably true for most the super competitive businesses too.

[m33k44]

> My business failed because I’m unintelligent

If that is the case then every successful business person should be categorised as "unintelligent"! Most of the successful business people have failed in their first attempt.

> lack business acumen and do not have a good network.

This could be the real reason. And it can be built with little bit of effort.

[a_lifters_life]

My first failed cause I listened to people who told me to not continue, and lacked a deep enough network, while trying to pay my day to day bills out of pocket. I should never ever have.

On the cusp of creating another.

[muzani]

There's a very similar thread here just last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19141968

[greenyoda]

That thread seems to be mostly about personal failures rather than businesses failing.

[AwesomeFaic]

Digital marketing + website development. I wasn't aggressive enough with acquiring new clients and went for too much low hanging fruit (people seeking my services but unable to pay standard rates). I'd spend too much time working to pay bills and didn't have enough time to hunt for new, most financially stable, clients. Voluntarily terminated the business after 15 months to join a digital agency.

[jf22]

1. I wasn't a professional and had no ability to act like a professional while creating quotes or selling my services. 2. My co-founder lied and didn't manage the marketing spend for ten months while saying he did. 3. Php Scripts that aren't Wordpress Plugins are hard to sell. 4. I shut down a website after calling off a wedding and being too emotionally drained to work on it.