Failure is often more interesting than success and we learn so much from mistakes we make.  During a panel featuring Elnora Cunningham of U-Haul, Bruce Howard of UpSnap/User Friendly Media, and Trevor Sumner of LocalVox, they discussed lessons they’d learned from past mistakes.

A recurring theme repeated throughout the discussion was not saying “no.”  Sometimes you need to just say “no” to prospects, clients, vendors, partners, or even colleagues.  Many of the below mistakes shared by the panelists could have been solved by saying “no.”

• Trying to be an “all in one” solution: There’s a great desire amongst small businesses to just deal with one provider.  And it’s tempting to get that business in the door.  But being a jack of all trades gets you away from your core business and doing what you do best.

• Not being selective enough in which partners to work with: More time must be spent being very specific in what your needs are and matching those with the correct partners.  Research needs to be done to make sure that the partner can do what they’ve promised.  And even after the right partner is selected, it is important to continually audit the partner’s performance.

• Rushing in to provide a service through a partner: It’s easy to try short cuts by selling a partner’s product and rolling it out right away.  This often will result in an in-house team that is either unprepared to sell the new product or that hasn’t spent sufficient time to learn it.

• Not investing in your own company: Sometimes it may be better to spend time owning or having a controlling interest in the service as that creates more leverage in being able to operate the service efficiently.

• Not being selective of which services compliment your existing services: Services should build on each other and complement each other so that work on one helps another.  Otherwise you end up running a bunch of small independent businesses that don’t operate with scale.

• Believing that all clients are “logical” and that results themselves are good enough: Your measurement of success may not be the most important or even the same as your client’s view of success.  For example, clients demand simplicity.  Getting great results conditional upon the client jumping through complex hoops to get there may not be well received by a client.  Find out what the client will view as success and work towards that goal.

Panelists also shared some mistakes that local search service providers make when approaching a large client.

• Trying to land the brand instead of trying to meet a need: Get your foot in the door, even if it is for a small, specialized need.  Brands are no different in that a company who proves its worth will be kept onboard and trusted with greater tasks.
• Not being flexible: Instead of bending to meet the needs of the client, companies make the mistake of reshaping the client’s needs to fit its own business model.

Lastly, everyone recognized that mistakes can be great learning experiences.  But not cutting your losses will compound the impact of the mistake.  Decisions should be made quickly when the mistake is realized so as to stem the blood flow quickly and move on to adopt the lesson learned.