Hey guys... just wanted to share something with the forum that really helped me and might help a few people out.
My business has been doing pretty good and has been this way the past few years... it's been steady. That's the problem though. It hasn't grown much at all and the average numbers have stayed the same weekly/monthly/yearly... and I've known for a little while I've wanted to grow and not get comfortable.
I've tried starting a few different business ideas that had nothing to do with my current business which has been successful by my standards - carpet cleaning, a overall home services business, an ecommerce business, etc... and I couldn't get past the starting point with any of them.
So about three weeks ago I sat down one night and decided to type a word doc I titled "Current State + Plans". I was brutally honest with myself and typed out where I was at with my business and what I had tried to do that failed and what it all means that you can read some of below.
Immediately after typing this I had an idea to add another product line to what I sell... and it's been three weeks and I'm already selling them and have more demand than I can keep up with at the moment... and I'm convinced if I hadn't typed this out to myself that I would never have taken the time to think of the idea that has helped grow my business profits.
(Here's a copy and paste that I trimmed down)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current State:
My business has grown yearly and I’ve tried to start 4+ businesses with no success while this has happened.
What does this show?
Getting deeper into each point…
You are ignoring the success of your first successful business
This has been your favorite and most reliable and profitable business.
Should you focus on adding or growing to this business instead of starting a new one? I think you can put most of your effort into this while planning to invest the money into one you want to start at a different time.
You aren’t succeeding in starting anything new and always back out before you move forward
I think this is because I talk myself out of a lot of ideas or I go back to the fact mine is working already. It’s hard enough to start ONE successful business statistically… If you do decide to start a new business… you should commit 100% if you do the research and feel confident.
You want to start something new or grow in some way.
Is this wrong? No... it’s how I got here in the first place. I think this is where discipline comes into play. I can have a plan to start investing my current cash flow into a new business like my ecommerce idea while running my current business faithfully and working hard every week. Have a plan of how much you want to save to start it and work to make and save that much every month until you can start the new business.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that last part I started to type out some ideas that I could add to my business and one in particular stood out.... and that's the one that's grown my business.
If you feel like you're stuck or can't move forward like I was.... I would recommend typing out an honest document to yourself with the following included:
- What you've tried to do and are doing at this moment
- What it all shows
- What can you do to move forward
It's just a quick self assessment.... but it really helped me figure out what I was doing wrong and what I needed to focus on which was adding a new product to my existing business instead of tinkering around with shiny object syndrome on a bunch of other brand new ventures.
My business has been doing pretty good and has been this way the past few years... it's been steady. That's the problem though. It hasn't grown much at all and the average numbers have stayed the same weekly/monthly/yearly... and I've known for a little while I've wanted to grow and not get comfortable.
I've tried starting a few different business ideas that had nothing to do with my current business which has been successful by my standards - carpet cleaning, a overall home services business, an ecommerce business, etc... and I couldn't get past the starting point with any of them.
So about three weeks ago I sat down one night and decided to type a word doc I titled "Current State + Plans". I was brutally honest with myself and typed out where I was at with my business and what I had tried to do that failed and what it all means that you can read some of below.
Immediately after typing this I had an idea to add another product line to what I sell... and it's been three weeks and I'm already selling them and have more demand than I can keep up with at the moment... and I'm convinced if I hadn't typed this out to myself that I would never have taken the time to think of the idea that has helped grow my business profits.
(Here's a copy and paste that I trimmed down)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current State:
My business has grown yearly and I’ve tried to start 4+ businesses with no success while this has happened.
What does this show?
- You are ignoring the success of your first successful business
- You aren’t succeeding in starting anything new and always back out before you move forward
- You want to start something new or grow in some way.
Getting deeper into each point…
You are ignoring the success of your first successful business
This has been your favorite and most reliable and profitable business.
Should you focus on adding or growing to this business instead of starting a new one? I think you can put most of your effort into this while planning to invest the money into one you want to start at a different time.
You aren’t succeeding in starting anything new and always back out before you move forward
I think this is because I talk myself out of a lot of ideas or I go back to the fact mine is working already. It’s hard enough to start ONE successful business statistically… If you do decide to start a new business… you should commit 100% if you do the research and feel confident.
You want to start something new or grow in some way.
Is this wrong? No... it’s how I got here in the first place. I think this is where discipline comes into play. I can have a plan to start investing my current cash flow into a new business like my ecommerce idea while running my current business faithfully and working hard every week. Have a plan of how much you want to save to start it and work to make and save that much every month until you can start the new business.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that last part I started to type out some ideas that I could add to my business and one in particular stood out.... and that's the one that's grown my business.
If you feel like you're stuck or can't move forward like I was.... I would recommend typing out an honest document to yourself with the following included:
- What you've tried to do and are doing at this moment
- What it all shows
- What can you do to move forward
It's just a quick self assessment.... but it really helped me figure out what I was doing wrong and what I needed to focus on which was adding a new product to my existing business instead of tinkering around with shiny object syndrome on a bunch of other brand new ventures.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
