We don’t do that… or do we?

This is the first of three stupid small business decisions I have made or seen others make. Hope you enjoy them.

Limitations.

We’ve all got them.

Unfortunately, some of us rely on those limitations for making excuses about why we are not where we want to be, why we don’t have as many employees as we need to get to where we need to be in order to get to that next level that we’re constantly reaching for.

The entrepreneurial spirit crashes into the obstacles and we make very logical and very firm excuses for why we do not pursue certain things. I’m certainly guilty of a number of those – but allow me to be honest here and admit the ugly truth:

The only business venture that you should not pursue is one that does not make you profitable.

The end.

Yes, there are nuances to every business decision and even with all the due dilligence and perfectionism in the world – you could fail. That said, you can fail at anything but hopefully you learn something from it. I’d argue it’s far better to be learning that holding pattern in the land of ignorance.

Excuses

We are not big enough to take on that project at this time.

We do not have the sufficient expertise to pull that off.

We are too busy. (I don’t know enough four letter words to properly comment on this case).

We are not in the business to do that.

We do not have a business model that makes that possible.

Reality

Business (and business models) are designed to convert opportunity into revenue.

If there are opportunities to be pursued that can produce revenue, the only reason for not doing it is an excuse.

In the IT space in particular, we have to quickly face the fact that we have to do more than what fits in our little comfort zone. Why? Because everyone else is doing it, and the choice becomes between remaining relevant or becoming comfortable with a very small client base.

More on that in the next post, two more left on this topic.