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The difference between shiny objects vs innovation and Adapting to change (6)

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Hi all,

Over the last 8ish years, I have had a few successful businesses. One in Aff marketing, one marketing agency and an info product business. One of the businesses hit 7-figs. The others were multi-6.

Something I am good at is keeping an eye out for where the market is going and thinking of innovations/competitive advantages.

However, I think there is a fine line between "adapting" and "shiny object syndrome".

I read @matuloo post on Adapt or Die (It's very good)


In that post you said:

I agree with this to a certain extent. I left Affiliate marketing in 2016 to start an agency. At that time, it was a great opportunity and it paid off. However, some of my peers who stayed in AM (their SMALL and ISOLATED part of the internet) are orders of magnitude more successful. (im not comparing, im just making a case. Promise! )

My question here is this: It it so wrong to stay within your SMALL and ISOLATED part of the world? To focus on one area for 20-30 years and innovate within it?

My issue: I've reached a point in my business career where, in 8 years, I have so many different internet business models and been successful at most of them. And that is part of my issue... I can do all of them well to the point that I can be considered "successful" but not well enough to where I can be called "a top player".

Thoughts?

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That's a question that really made me think. Either approach can lead to success or failure. It really depends on the particular situation.

I've seen cases where successful businesses tried to expand into too many areas, and end up failing at the new ventures due to lack of expertise, plus neglecting the original part of their business that made them successful in the first place.

The opposite happens as well: Many entrepreneurs need to go through several different businesses before finding something successful enough to continue with long term. (But then: Had they stuck with their first business and soldiered though, who's to say it wouldn't have worked out?)

And then there are companies that pick one little area and become an expert. They're laser-focused and on the pulse. They live and breathe their expertise. So they're always innovating and adapting and staying ahead of the curve. They completely take over a smaller pie, leaving all the other pies alone. But they stand a good chance of surviving for longer.

Sorry for ranting - my conclusion is that a case can be made for either approach.




In the end though, I think there are a few major factors involved when making this type of decision:

1)Risks vs. profits potential vs. cashflow vs. amount of effort.

2)Your happiness / level of desire (what makes you tick, what excites you, what drives your passion and makes you want to get out of bed every morning).

I'm not an expert in business, but you are. Please do let me know if you think of others to add to this list!




If I were you though, I would consider the following, in the specific order:

1st)Explore and evaluate opportunities to grow your current businesses. (In their current areas.)

2nd)Explore and evaluate new opportunities that are relate to your current businesses. (Opportunities that will not require too much of a stretch in expertise and/or resources. e.g. Similar products, other products for the same customer base.)

3rd)Explore and evaluate new opportunities that are completely different from your current businesses. (Basically something you have little expertise in and would need to start from scratch.)


These are ranked in order from the smallest to the greatest amount of risk. The more expertise and connections you already have in an area, the lower the risk.

As for profits potential, any of the above 3 types of opportunities can result is great or small profits.

Laying out all of these opportunities and evaluating their risks vs. profits potential vs. amount of effort required vs. your level of desire in pursuing each of them, and then comparing and ranking them, will help you to come to a decision (I believe).

Of course, you'd want to pick an opportunity that excites and motivates you, where the potential profits are worth the corresponding risks.

And every opportunity will require effort to capitalize on. The amount of effort needs to be worthy of the potential profits as well.

So for example, you'd probably want to eliminate opportunities that are high risk and require a lot of effort to capitalize on, but have low profits potential - unless you really really REALLY love the idea and are dying to give it a try. But in that case, you'd know to dedicate a budget you're ready to write off as a loss.

And you may discover some opportunities that are low-risk and easy to implement - maybe opportunities to scale your existing businesses? I would definitely explore that first - 80/20 rule.

Now I'm just babbling - best of luck in reaching new heights!




Amy

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This! A few months ago, I realised that I always focused on your first point. And disregarded your second point. I started in AM in 2014 and developed marketing skills as a result. But the opportunties I took were 100% focused on max profits. Max cash. and speed. Now... that is not a bad thing.... Unless you hate waking up every day doing what you are doing.

That is why I bring this up. 20-30 years doing one thing you really like... that feels like play is the direction I will move in (I first heard this in the book " Almanack of Naval Ravikant" - great audio book).


I did this just this morning. Although, I added the variable of "Can I stay in this space for 10 years?"

My agency was focused on helping 7, 8 and 9 figure e-com brands with email (and with ads, sometimes). So I'll play in this space but not in services. Hiring people to do creative work (for low profits), was draining. It's right for some people... not me..

Anyways... thank you for letting me think this out loud. And thanks for sharing your thoughts @vortex

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That's a very good question my friend and I would say it's absolutely not wrong to stay within your small and isolated part of the world

Given that a few conditions are met.

Let me give you an example: I used to run simple websites that were called toplists. Simple idea really, you would list top10-50 or whatever number of websites (other toplists from the most part) on a single page. Whenever someone clicked on one of those links, the site that received the visit would count it list your toplist based on how many visits you sent. I could basically build 50 almost identical toplists, interlink them and believe it or not, it would work like a charm. I thought this would go on forever, but I was wrong. After some time, the internet evolved and this type of a website has become obsolete and stopped working. So even if it was very easy to run such websites and it was making good money, I simply counts stay in this "part of the world" because it no longer worked.

So condition no.1 - the business model must be kind of immortal in order for someone to be able to stick with it for 20-30 years.

Another example: maps and navigation in cars. Great business once, until google made it free and most map/navigation companies went belly up.

So condition no.2 - the business model should not be easy to dominate by one major player, let's say it can't be disrupted by some large company with deep pockets.

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I'm sure you understand where I'm heading to with this. Sometimes it's not possible to stay within that small part of the world, because someone else will make it impossible, not yourself.

I would say that the online world is more prone to this, it all evolves so fast. When I look back at my online "career", all of the main businesses that I've ran did last for a few years, some 2-3 but I had one that went strong for 10+ years. But eventually, they all died at some point because of things I couldnt control... user preferences, general internet behavior evolution, googles algo changes, free video tubes that limited buying intent etc...

When I wrote the article that you referenced, I tried to make people think about the whole internet and how big it actually is. The opportunities are almost endless. Whoever thinks they have seen it all and tried everything is simply clueless. There is always more to discover and test. Have a business with potential to survive the next 20-30 years? By all means stick to it and master whatever it takes to rule it. Is your business failing on you? Keep your head up, there are maaaaany more option on the Net

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Niiice response man.

Firstly, to clarify, my agency didn't fail. In fact it is growing faster than I can hire. However, the growth made me realise I didn't want to build "unscalable" businesses anymore. So I closed it.

I agree with you, many online businesses jness models do not survive past 3 years. And if they do, its heavy saturated or low profit (my experience).

Thing is... When I say 20 years, I mean broad focus level (oxymoron lol). Affiliate marketing is huge and you can spend your life in it.

I'm your story it sounded like most things you did were aligned to affiliate marketing (not owning the product but generating an action online)

Agencies are huge and you can spend your life doing it. But the old web design agencies are innovating, niching and becoming crypto design agencies for example.

Same with white hat lead gen and I think ecom.

Anyways... Thanks for letting me think out loud on this.

Final general thought: I think the advice to FOCUS or TRY LOTS OF THINGS are both wrong. It's better to learn to think for yourself and make better decisions in the moment. (PS I have not mastered this but I hope to One day)

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Yup, it comes down to how we define our "small part of the world". If we set it to be "affiliate marketing" then yes, it's definitely big enough to get occupied with for the rest of your life.

I think both of these have their time and place. When starting out, it's good to focus, because otherwise you might get lost in the process. So tryin a lot of things at that stage would not be a good idea. Once you're experienced enough, staying ultra focused might actually hinder your growth, so that's the time when trying a lot of things might be a good idea So you're right pretty much, the best is to find your own way and make the decisions suitable for where you are at currently.

That's what the forums are for... sharing our opinion and getting insights from others, that's the best part of being a community member

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