Following one, a second business failure (6)
I believe the answer is:
fiasco
'failure' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'following one a second business' is the wordplay.
'following' becomes 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'a second' becomes 'as' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'business' becomes 'co'.
'f'+'i'+'as'+'co'='FIASCO'
(Other definitions for fiasco that I've seen before include "Abject failure" , "Embarrassing failure" , "Humiliating disaster" , "Utter and ridiculous failure" , "An absolute mess, what a farce" .)