For God’s sake… Focus!
It seems a simple right? Sometimes the simple things are often the hardest thing to do properly. When you’re building a startup that is growing fast there are so many things going on and ultimately there are also a lot of opportunities too. It could be something that will increase revenue or as a founder another ball to juggle with a side hustle or venture. Personally I think these are just a load of distractions.
“Don’t do it!”
The thing is… don’t do it! So many entrepreneurs look at others who have their fingers in many pies and think they should do the same. Yes, it’s important to spread the risk and have different income streams but you need to nail the first one because that is the most important, then you can broaden your horizons.
I’m guilty too
I’ve been guilty of not doing that in the past and it was a huge mistake. I now see so many founders making the same mistake. They think that by doing so many different things that they stand a better chance of success or helping their startup have a longer runway but that’s rubbish. You will simply lose focus.
“Surely you would do absolutely everything in your power to be the best runner in the whole damn world.”
If you were a professional runner but you weren’t a champion, would you take up hockey and baseball to increase your chances of being a champion? Surely you would do absolutely everything in your power to be the best runner in the whole damn world. You would train your socks off, eat the right food and not take drugs.
In a startup, that laser focus is even harder because often in the early days founders find themselves juggling so many things that taking on more seems like a natural thing to do.
Is it working?
Is your startup working? Then focus and grow the damn thing instead of looking for other ways to make money or take over the world. Is it not working? Then fix it, or dump it and move on and give that laser focus to the next venture.
In our own startup we have been really focusing on exactly that with as little distraction as possible. Personally I’ve been spending less time on social media (even though we are content marketing agency!), less Zoom calls and a whole manner of other things. The difference has been visible and to be honest we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.
To get traction, to become profitable and to grow either organically or through securing investment is so hard that you really cannot afford to take your eye off the ball otherwise, it’s simple… you will lose the damn thing!
Do yourself a favour. Focus!
