The death of a business

After 9 months of hard work, the owners of a small business on Bowen Island have decided to throw in the towel.

Evidently this has been the worst autumn, winter, and spring for any business that depends on the tourist trade. (I can confirm the "worst autumn, winter, and spring" part of this. The absolutely miserable weather put a big dent in my riding.)

In speaking to the co-owner of the restaurant, he said his most powerful emotion was relief. That is a not uncommon reaction among entrepreneurs when they decide to pull the plug. Of course there is some grieving and regret over the time and money devoted to a venture what did not turn out as expected. But as with many things in life, we often learn more from failure than success.

I've heard of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that will not even look at your business plan unless you've already had one venture go bankrupt. They say that there are lots of lessons that you learn from bankruptcy, and they don't want you learning then with their money. Kind of makes sense.