Sticking with One Thing from Start to Profit

How many businesses do you have? Be honest. These can be online businesses, direct sales, networking marketing, etc. Now, how many are churning a profit?

Scenario: You find a great idea for a business, you jump in and get started, you aren’t making money overnight, you hear another great idea, you go ahead and start that too, neither of those are making the money you thought, so you hear another good idea and start that, now you have several businesses that aren’t giving you a great return, you throw your hands up and say they are all scams. Guess what? You are a serial entrepreneur.

It’s not those business opportunities that are failing you, it’s you that is failing those businesses. It’s hard in today’s online world to not be distracted by the next big thing, but you have to start everything with a plan and work it from “Start to Profit.” Start to Profit is a mindset I learned from the very smart Lynn Terry. You cannot allow yourself to move onto something else until what you have already started is earning a profit.

Every business is different and every business is hard work. The only people getting rich from “Get Rich Quick Schemes” are those people that are selling you the scheme. And I’d place bets that they are working pretty darned hard getting the word out about their “guaranteed method.”

My own personal mantra these days is “the day you stop working on your business is the day your business stops working for you.” If you are still at a stage where you want your business bigger, you need to have a plan to do something for your business every day. It may be social marketing, making a few phone calls, sending out a couple emails, but you must do something. As the word gets out and your business builds a following of its own, only then are you free to start something else. You’ll still need to do a little maintenance on your first business, but it won’t be so time consuming.

I know several people that literally have dozens of businesses. Those people can then be broken down into three groups: Those that have all of their businesses making a profit, requiring minimal upkeep and they are adding another venture as we speak; those that some of their businesses are working for them because they dedicated their time and energy to get them going and the rest of their businesses are waiting their turn to grow (they haven’t been abandoned, just put on hold); and finally those that none of their businesses are doing anything because their owner jumped ship half way through and lost interest and motivation. And they can’t figure out why nothing worked.

Find your passion and get plan. Your plans can be modified as you go if needed, but don’t start something else until you have your first plan completed…from start to profit.

How many businesses do you have under your belt? How many are successful?