A lesson from failure

The old saying, “I learn more from failure than I do from success.” Can be applied to one of my business ventures. Fortunately I only lost $500.00 dollars, but to me that was still a lot of money.

I found the job on Monster, or Career Builder, I don’t remember which. Being that I found it on one of the job boards made me feel secure about the job. I’ve since learned that just because it is on a job board does not make it 100% “legit”. The idea behind the this business was an online networking system for models and actors. They could set up a page on the site and put their head shot and other data. Ad agencies could go to the web site and look for models or actors for promotions. Contact them via the network and set up arrangements. Potential clients would see the site and if interested fill out an online form. This would then be sent to me and I would have their contact info. They would set an appointment and I would call them at the hour and day they indicated they wanted to talk. I would then run them through the advantages of the modeling network and get them to sign up. I would be paid per sign up. I also had to buy my leads to call. I also had to pay $500.00 to get set up.

Start up costs are normal. I did get training I did get leads. I did make a sell. It was working, until one day I logged on and the site was down with a note saying it was out of business. The fellow running it took all the money and ran. There wasn’t much I could do.

So now I check things out more carefully. That is one of the many failures I had. However I still want to make things successful so I keep at it. But things that sound too good to be true probably are.

Dean