This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's going on? Chris Guillebeau here with you, bringing you another episode of Side Hustle School and specifically bringing you an episode known as Failure Friday. I always enjoy working on these. Today is actually going to, well, hold on, let me tell you about it first. I'll tell you what's going on today.
Failure Friday is a collection of short stories about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. I've had a lot of things go wrong in my life, both in my life in general and in my entrepreneurial career. And I think I've actually probably learned more through those experiences than through whatever successes I've had. So a year or two ago, we decided to start this whole segment that's all about those mistakes, missteps, disasters. And of course, failure, not just mine, but many of our featured case studies, other small business owners, entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and some from our listeners as well.
So as I said, excited about today's, excited about all of them, but enjoyed working on today's. This one features Thomas from Massachusetts. I think you get to hear that a bit in his accent. Thomas is a fisherman who started his own fishing store in a coastal town and it, well, let's just hear the rest of the story from him. So kind of hand it over to Thomas.
[Music]
Hi everybody, my name is Thomas Sewell. And for five years, I was the proud owner of a small fishing store in a small coastal town. I had always been passionate about fishing and had dreamed of owning my own store since I was a kid. The store had been doing pretty well for the first few years, but things started to go wrong when a big fishing supply chain opened up a store in the next town over. At first I tried to compete with their prices, but it pretty quickly became clear that I couldn't match their discounts.
I started to lose customers to the big store and my sales began to decline. I tried to come up with new ways to attract customers to my store, but nothing seemed to work. I started to feel like a fish out of water struggling to stay afloat in that sea of competition. Finally, after several months of trying to compete, I had to admit defeat and close my store. It was a devastating blow, but I tried to stay positive and focus on the lessons I'd learned.
First and foremost, I learned that it's important to be realistic and not get caught up in the hype of the competition. I should have realized that I couldn't compete on prices with a big chain store and focused on what made my store unique instead. Secondly, I learned that it's important to diversify and not rely on a single source of income. If I had diversified my business and offered other products or services, maybe I would have been able to weather the storm of competition. In the end, I was forced to close my fishing store, but I emerged from the experience with valuable lessons and a new sense of determination.
I may have been reeled in by the competition, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. After all, as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. So, you know, even though I had to reel in my losses and start from scratch, I'm now back on the right hook and ready to cast my line into the world of business once again. [Music]
- Thomas, thanks so much. Listeners and Thomas, remember, never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
As you heard from Thomas, he had to reel in his losses, but he's now getting ready to make another attempt, casting his line into the world of business. So I love that, I love the puns as well. Thanks, Thomas. Listeners, if you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions, we've got all kinds of stuff coming up this year, including a new episode tomorrow, which you can access completely free, download, stream, whatever you prefer, wherever you like to listen. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau.
This podcast is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from The Onward Project.
