Why "best practices" aren't always best for you (Guide to Small Business Ecommerce Strategy)

Roger Ehrenberg is a successful investor who knows more about finding and growing great companies than most. He’s had a number of successes, notably Wallstrip and Mytrade. But he’s learned more from failure. Better yet, he’s sharing his learning. Roger has written a powerful post mortem (in the truly dead sense) of his company Monitor110 that you should read right now. Insightful. Useful. Smart. Raw.

The problem with most “best practices” is they suffer from survivor’s selection bias. In other words, the folks preaching such practices point only to the survivors who used them, never the failures. But I bet many failed companies used those same practices. The key is recognizing which fit your business, which are worth trying and which won’t work in your world.

How do you do that?

• Examine your goals.
• Match your tactics to those goals.
• Focus on what matters first.
• Learn. Every step of the way.

For example, what happens to your business when your site goes down? Are you ready to keep going? Here’s what I learned from my own failure in that regard.

Tell us about a failure you learned from in the comments. Or drop me an email and we’ll add it here in the coming weeks.

You can’t afford to make mistakes in such a competitive environment. Your success relies on learning from others’ mistakes as much as their wins. And your own.

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