Not every business works out as well as we’d hope it would. It’s an unfortunate truth that four in ten small businesses don’t make it past five years of trading.

While we’d all love to believe every idea we have will transform into the next majestic unicorn start up, the odds are certainly not in our favour.

If you’ve had to say goodbye to a once prosperous and exciting business venture, it can be even tougher to pluck up the courage to dust yourself off and do it all over again.

The element that will make the difference between this start up and the next is learning from your mistakes and making sure you have a plan. These are our tips on how you can plan your comeback from a failed start up.

Take time out

If your start up failed because you were overworking yourself, take a break and regroup. Make sure you are your best self when it comes to starting a new venture, rather than jumping straight back in and coming up against the same problems as before.

Even if you think you’re ready to start a new business straight away, a little time for reflection will force you to consider your business’ failures and could even help you see them from a different perspective – one that may help you run your next business a bit better.

Pinpoint what went wrong

It’s important to know exactly what happened to your previous company in order to help create a better foundation for the next one. Take your time looking over the accounts and looking at any complaints or issues you had early on and seeing how these progressed.

This will help you both come to terms the loss of your business and help you prepare the next venture more adequately in these areas so you don’t make the same mistakes again.

Create your new mission

Now you’ve had time to reflect on your past business failures and feel as though you are adequately prepared to create a new business, you should start thinking about what you want your new venture to convey.

A new mission statement for a new venture is a must, so sit down and think about how you want to describe your mission. If you have difficulty putting it into words, outsource to a content creator. With your help, they’ll be able to create a clear and concise mission statement that will help you effectively brand your new business.

Brand up

Speaking of branding, now’s the time to get it sorted. Your next step in setting up the new business is making sure you have a clear brand that you want to push.

This will help you gain loyal customers who will come to you time and time again, as they believe in your both the company and its values as well as the product it’s selling. When creating your brand, you’ll need to consider the varying aspects that make it up. From your tone of voice on social media to the logo – everything should be carefully considered so that your brand perfectly represents your mission.

Get the show on the road

Now you’re ready to get back out there. It may be daunting to bring another product back onto the market after a knockback, but if you believe in your new product enough, you’ll have little trouble in getting back out there.

Launch the website, start up the social media and get the show on the road, because you’re now ready to get your entrepreneurial self back out there.

Take a leaf out of Pandle’s book

Pandle’s own director knows how difficult it can be to get yourself back off the ground when you’ve hit a wall with your start up.

However, Lee Murphy didn’t let that come in the way of creating something great out of the problems he had. Lee founded a start up, which came up against cash flow problems.

When that happened Lee retrained as an accountant and founded The Accountancy Partnership and later, Pandle.

Now we’re helping businesses all over the UK with their accounts! So, learn from your mistakes and make sure you don’t come up against the same problem next time.

Are you having a hard time getting back into the entrepreneurial mind set after a start up ended badly? Or have you learnt from your mistakes and have lots of new ideas to get started on? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!