Failed Business Venture Stories

[mooch]

The “How many here started their own business” thread got me wondering more about failed business attempts. Many people love touting their success stories but don’t share the failure(s) that they’ve had. I feel that there’s much more to learn from the failures than successes.

So what are your failed business ventures? Why did it fail? What do you wish you did different? Was it a capital issue? People issue? Insufficient market research? What did you learn?


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[Mudslinger]

What do you classify as a fail?

[RattlesnakeDan]

Bankruptcy in 06 when the construction market died in Colorado. Lost everything.
Partners in multi million dollar mold co. that went belly up due to many circumstances.
Had some paint strippers made from peanut oil sold on tv shopping network that didn't make a profit.
Many ventures that didn't pan out and some that did quite well. Kinda comes with risk and trial.

[Drycreek3189]

I wanted to be a gigolo, but.............it never got off the ground.

[MBV77]

What do you classify as a fail?

Something that ends with you saying....”Mother ****er!! I knew I shouldn’t of tried that ****!”.


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[hooligan]

Had an art gallery that did great, business partner screwed me over and cleaned out the accounts and took off. Ended losing quite a bit.

Had a bar, things were great for 4 years, land owner sold the building on us. Notified us on a Tuesday we had until Sunday to be out. I hadn’t read the lease terms on my own and had trust my lawyers. When it came up they said, “we saw it but it rarely happens so we didn’t think it’s be an issue”. Still made okay on that one but I consider it a fail because it didn’t end how I would have liked

[mooch]

What do you classify as a fail?

I’ll leave that up to the individual.

Personally my definitions would be not profitable, not scalable, consumer interest wasn’t as expected, necessary cash flow wasn’t achieved, doors had to be shut for whatever reason.

Bankruptcy in 06 when the construction market died in Colorado. Lost everything.
Partners in multi million dollar mold co. that went belly up due to many circumstances.
Had some paint strippers made from peanut oil sold on tv shopping network that didn't make a profit.
Many ventures that didn't pan out and some that did quite well. Kinda comes with risk and trial.

Partners - what did you learn from that? How would you better protect yourself if you could do it over? What do you look for in a business partner?

Paint strippers - they sold but didn’t turn a profit, why? Manufacturing costs too high, etc?

Had an art gallery that did great, business partner screwed me over and cleaned out the accounts and took off. Ended losing quite a bit.

Had a bar, things were great for 4 years, land owner sold the building on us. Notified us on a Tuesday we had until Sunday to be out. I hadn’t read the lease terms on my own and had trust my lawyers. When it came up they said, “we saw it but it rarely happens so we didn’t think it’s be an issue”. Still made okay on that one but I consider it a fail because it didn’t end how I would have liked

Art gallery - what would you do different from the start to better protect yourself?

Bar - sounds like the lesson learned is to make sure you understand the fine print and not rely on lawyers to do the right thing every time. Anything else you’d do different?



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[S-3 Ranch]

I was a partner in a failed business, the managing partner was terrible at Human Resources
And our workers were just terrible employees ( chronic absenteeism, poor work ethics, ect)
And he would never listen to anyone who he disagreed with about fixing the problem,
I finally pulled the ripcord and bailed “ lesson was don’t throw more money or time at a problem someone else can’t understand “
Also Texas workforce commission was impossible to deal with to

[miket]

Designed and manufactured a digital night vision scope. Sold about 25 and decided it wasnt worth the trouble. In the end I had to compete with chinese made units and I just couldnt make it cheap enough to be profitable.

[Chew]

My financial story...

[mooch]

Designed and manufactured a digital night vision scope. Sold about 25 and decided it wasnt worth the trouble. In the end I had to compete with chinese made units and I just couldnt make it cheap enough to be profitable.

Thanks for sharing. Was there anything unique about your design that would’ve made it attractive for a larger company to purchase the rights to?

I was a partner in a failed business, the managing partner was terrible at Human Resources
And our workers were just terrible employees ( chronic absenteeism, poor work ethics, ect)
And he would never listen to anyone who he disagreed with about fixing the problem,
I finally pulled the ripcord and bailed “ lesson was don’t throw more money or time at a problem someone else can’t understand “
Also Texas workforce commission was impossible to deal with to

Thanks for sharing. Was the business still profitable through all that? What would you do differently looking back now?



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[RiverRat1]

Way back in the early 90's I a buddy and myself started LIV.com - Living Memories
We had no clue how it all worked. We just knew obituaries would be all online one day. We didn't lose anything as my buddy eventually sold LIV.com for 10k

What we did wrong.
1. Too early - imagine that LOL Usually I'm far too late.
2. Needed to invest a couple million to corner the market up front. Then we could have sold in the Dot Com flare up for billions.

We were just too young/dumb. Great idea but didn't know how to execute.



And yes, TWC is impossible to deal with. That was a small part of why I shut down my last business. Employees suck, TWC, taxes, taxes, then the hidden taxes, and the stress. Could have worked but no matter what we couldn't find good enough people to help run it. This was a survey company for oil/gas field.

[Bruiser]

not scaleable is a failure huh learn somethign new everyday

[Mudslinger]

Had an indoor range and archery shop for 10 years. It made money but did not do well enough up here to make a living off of. I fought the mail order business too long and this was at a time when top end bows sold for $300. Highest cost bows when i sold the business was when the machined aluminum risers hit the market at $700.
Had a construction/remodeling business that i owned with a partner until my partner screwed me. Let it go for next to nothing.
Not extreme failures, but not livable money from the archery shop. The construction business paid well until my partner started screwing me.

[mooch]

Way back in the early 90's I a buddy and myself started LIV.com - Living Memories

We had no clue how it all worked. We just knew obituaries would be all online one day. We didn't lose anything as my buddy eventually sold LIV.com for 10k



What we did wrong.

1. Too early - imagine that LOL Usually I'm far too late.

2. Needed to invest a couple million to corner the market up front. Then we could have sold in the Dot Com flare up for billions.



We were just too young/dumb. Great idea but didn't know how to execute.







And yes, TWC is impossible to deal with. That was a small part of why I shut down my last business. Employees suck, TWC, taxes, taxes, then the hidden taxes, and the stress. Could have worked but no matter what we couldn't find good enough people to help run it. This was a survey company for oil/gas field.

Ouch, that one hurts a bit! (2) seems to be a common theme with a lot of good ideas that never take off. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom the investment required to make it work

Had an indoor range and archery shop for 10 years. It made money but did not do well enough up here to make a living off of. I fought the mail order business too long and this was at a time when top end bows sold for $300. Highest cost bows when i sold the business was when the machined aluminum risers hit the market at $700.
Had a construction/remodeling business that i owned with a partner until my partner screwed me. Let it go for next to nothing.
Not extreme failures, but not livable money from the archery shop. The construction business paid well until my partner started screwing me.

It seems that construction/remodel typically does well. What’s preventing you from doing it again?

not scaleable is a failure huh learn somethign new everyday

Maybe not for your situation/plan, but yes it very well can be depending on the business plan and goals




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