Why My Failed Business Feels Crucial For My Successful Future

As aspiring entrepreneurs, we can’t help but find pleasure in stories about successful businesses, which bring out a sense of delight and motivation in all of us. We watch for lessons to learn from those companies, but businesses also fail. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of five businesses will fail in their first year, with half of small businesses failing in the first five years. With that said, the past 24 months have been trial after trial for me.

I started my marketing and public relations business in April of 2019 because I had previously been homeless and I didn’t have any childcare for my children. I started taking on small clients to create book covers for them, get their names in the media, and assist them with marketing their businesses. Within six months I had completed radio interviews, published a best seller on Amazon, and was now being paid more by clients who needed my help. By the end of the year, I had successfully made six figures, and while that was revenue and not profit, I was still profitable. I felt motivated to do more, be more, and leave a legacy behind. As my business picked up, I was afforded the opportunity to grow my personal brand and put out content that would help others. I was quickly learning more about marketing and PR, and enjoying every moment of it.

Fast forward to 2020, and my business continued to expand. I was able to hire team members to help me and they became my first employees. I got to work with some amazing public figures and celebrities, and business was thriving. I hit over 1K subscribers on my personal brand’s YouTube channel, secured sponsorship deals, completed collaborations and my clientele grew. When COVID hit, I was able to pivot from pitching clients to providing content from my personal brand that could assist others. I wrote a few more books, published a few more articles, and continued to grow my YouTube channel, all while managing a roster full of clients and new employees that I had hired.

Following a mental breakdown in December of 2020, which included suicidal ideation, I was committed to a psychiatric facility. Upon being released from the hospital, I took a sabbatical for…