Someone asked me in a recent AMA video on Youtube about the benefits of pursuing multiple ventures vs. just focusing on one, and it wasn’t even three days after that someone else asked me if you should pursue a good opportunity when you’re making great progress with your existing venture. While I do many things today, it wasn’t always this way and they didn’t all start together. But I do keep getting involved in more and more and in many cases, completely unrelated industries or so it may seem.
People misunderstand how I personally scaled my businesses, as from the outside looking in, it simply seems like I started multiple businesses all at once and encountered major success, but in reality that’s far from the truth.
When I was 14 I started a car wash business that became a detailing shop, which eventually ended up becoming a tuning business. It wasn’t until 10 years later that the decision came to turn it into VIP Motoring and create a concierge service. During that process, which took about 12 years before becoming profitable above and beyond side income, I also started a 2nd company known as Secret Consulting, which was brought into existence from the necessity to substitute my income from the wonderful 6-figure job I lost.
While this happened and roughly the same time VIP Motoring became a concierge service, it was still a decade after the original business that led to VIP Motoring was up and running. From the failure of Secret Consulting in its earlier years also came the birth of Secret Entourage which became a completely different venture – one that was truly entrepreneurial and had nothing to do with money.
It wasn’t until 3 years had passed and the growth of Secret Consulting had stabilized that I focused on Secret Entourage giving it my undivided attention and using resources from both VIP Motoring (lifestyle) and Secret Consulting (business) to bring that up to what it is today.
My take on pursuing too many things at once is that your intention matters more than your actions when deciding if you should or not. If you are simply jumping business to business hoping one makes it so it can get your sole attention then it is wrong.
While you may think; why put all your eggs in one basket? The reality is that you have no eggs and that the baskets you speak of don’t exist until you build them.
You must always be able to build a strong foundation to any business followed by processes before being able to take your attention and energy away to focus on building other things. Don’t become that guy that builds 8 apps in 8 different industries only to realize that none are getting more than 1000 downloads.
This takes me to my next point about the need to jump business to business in order to overcome weakness. Many entrepreneurs today jump ship simply because they like building and creating but are weak at selling and marketing. They simply choose to think their work failed rather than looking at it from a place of self-accountability.
If you are unable to sell or market your app, you simply have to find someone who can help you do that, but shifting your focus away simply because the building phase is complete is a mistake you can’t afford. Being honest with yourself is the first place to start as I break down in Third Circle Theory. Then, you must be able to identify what you will not be able to accomplish so you can focus on finding others who can help.
Finally, just because marketing or selling isn’t your area of comfort or what you enjoy, doesn’t mean that you can’t learn or be familiar enough with the topic. Know enough to navigate the playing field and be able to help yourself find the right person to support your needs. Focus on building strong foundation in all aspects of the venture. From product creation, marketing, to fulfillment, only then should you take a moment and decide if jumping ship is the right thing to do.
