Closing a business isn’t failing, it’s a reason to celebrate

This year, both my wife and I have closed our businesses, and for very different reasons. My wife has closed her pet sitting business because COVID has negatively affected it. I closed mine because I don’t want to carry on as a contractor/freelancer. I’m going back to permanent work, and my wife was using hers as a side-hustle.

We both felt differently about closing up. I saw it as moving from one opportunity to another. Unfortunately, my wife saw hers as a failure. She felt as though she failed as a business, and she let all her clients down.

The thing is, neither of us have failed. Especially my wife. She kept a business going through thick and thin. She has dealt with a wide array of clients, and held it out all on her own. It was a success, and she did an amazing job at building relationships and gaining trust. If she restarted at any point, her client base would jump at the chance of having her back. To me, that’s a massive success that many people struggle with.

Running a business is always a huge learning experience. There’s many ups and downs, but the struggle is worth it. Even if you end up closing that business down, you would learn a lot from it. Learning from the business is what makes it a success. If you are closing down a business or have closed one in the past, please don’t see it as failure. See it as a success and just learn from what you did to get it to where it is or was.