This is the fifth of a ten-part series titled “Biztakes,” featuring interviews and data from over 100 entrepreneurs detailing the biggest regrets of their business careers. Click the following link for part four of this series: Stop Hiding From Your Customers.
Entrepreneurs are dreamers – that’s a good thing. But this ambitious mentality is a two-sided coin; sometimes, by focusing on the bigger, more lofty opportunities out there, entrepreneurs lose track of the smaller but more realistic opportunities that are right in front of them. Instead of focusing on improving their businesses incrementally on an everyday basis, they let their businesses slip by going for the “big catch.”
Of the 100+ entrepreneurs and small business owners I interviewed for my Biztakes series, the 5th most common regret that they expressed was “ignoring the day-to-day to focus on unrealized opportunities.” This was expressed in many ways, such as:
“I lost track of my business going for one big deal that never came through.”
“I kept focusing only on my VIP customers, and my main customer body got completely ignored. My business collapsed as a result.”
While the wording was different depending on who I asked, the idea was the same: If you chase big, unfounded opportunities at the expense of your everyday business, your business is going to flop. You need to balance ambition with pragmatism.
If you're only hunting for new business with a harpoon gun, you're forgetting about the opportunities you're leaving in the net.
David Papp, an IT guru and author of The IT Survival Guidebook, had this to say on the topic:
“The worst mistake I made [in my business career] was trying to focus too heavily on the “big deals.” I would walk around with a whale harpoon gun and ignored the smaller work. I now realize the high importance of focusing on monthly recurring revenue. Ensuring your base costs are covered. Money in is greater than money out. Positive cash flow is key. Then you can spend your extra cycles on some of the bigger deals, but you aren’t counting on them, and if they happen, view that as a bonus.”
David perfectly expressed the sentiments of the other entrepreneurs that I interviewed. Big deals are great, and if you get them you’re in heaven, but don’t pull an Icarus – the closer you are to the sun, the longer your fall will be when your wings don’t hold up. Take care of the needs of your business first. Then take care of the extras. Then, and only then, should you spend your time going for those giant deals. If you go after all opportunities with a harpoon gun, you’re going to miss everything that you could have caught with a net.
What can (and will) go wrong if you spend too much time focusing on the big deals?
1. You’ll piss your customers off. The more time you spend going after the big fish, the less time you’re spending on your customers. In today’s economy and competitive environment, if you aren’t offering your customers incredible, timely service, someone else will gladly step up to the plate. Just as importantly, you start to get a sort of “this isn’t worth my time” attitude that comes off in everything you do. If you aren’t dealing with your “humdrum” clients because you want the big fish, that WILL come across. Believe me because I’ve been there: if you’re convinced that you have something much better on the horizon, you’ll start treating what you currently have with less appreciation. If you don’t appreciate your customers, you might as well shut your doors right now. Also, did I mention that the administrative aspect of your business will completely collapse?
2. You’ll get jaded. The big problem with big fish? You haven’t caught them yet. In an article I published a little while ago, I urged my readers to Stop Trying to Tell the Future. Hinging your hopes on unrealized outcomes is insanely dangerous for a thousand reasons, but disappointment is one of the biggest risks you run. Have you ever tried doing good work when you’re depressed, tired, and jaded? If you’re spending all day counting on events that haven’t transpired and might not, you’re going to regret it.
3. You’ll miss even better (but less sexy) opportunities. This is, by far, the worst part of catching Harpoon Gun Syndrome: you stop noticing the small but frequent opportunities that are in front of you ever day.
Spectacular and rare events get more notice than frequently occurring events do, but they are often less meaningful and beneficial. This is a big problem. If you make $120,000 a year, but you win a $5,000 lottery ticket, what will you remember more: getting your bi-weekly paycheck for $5,000, or getting your lotto payout for $5,000? Which is more meaningful? Should you quit your job and start playing scratch tickets all the time? No – but a part of your brain will want to.
This lotto analogy isn’t far off from reality – when big, rare things happen, you automatically think they can happen again. The problem is that most things that you remember well are memorable because they DO NOT HAPPEN OFTEN, and probably won’t happen again.
In the summer of 2009, my company got a dream client. I won’t give away any compromising details, but I’ll say this: we were making a LOT of profit off of him, and we were doing about 1/8th as much work for him as we were for most of our other clients. Best yet, he was thrilled with us. An easy, high-profit, low-touch client who was referring other people to us left and right. Awesome, right? So I started spending all of my time trying to get more clients like him. The problem? There weren’t ANY more clients like him – he was so awesome precisely because he was so unique.
I spent hours and hours trying to get similar clients and didn’t get any. Here’s the sad part: in the time I spent trying to get more dream clients, I turned down about $50,000 in revenue that I could have made in the same time period. It wasn’t sexy or easy revenue, but it was GUARANTEED, and it was right in front of my eyes. But I was a moron and decided to go for the big fish, and I paid the price.
Stop going after the big fish, and start paying more attention to the ones that are all around you. You’ll end up eating a much bigger dinner, and you’ll be less worried about catching it.
Do you have any “whale gun” stories to share? Disagree with any part of this post? Have any questions, or want to share anything related with my readers? Then comment below! Also, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or weekly email newsletter to get parts 6-10 of the Biztakes series. Thanks for reading!
This definitely was a very important lesson I learned in running my businesses. Once you concentrate on MRR (monthly recurring revenue) to cover costs, it’s all “bonus” after that.
Couldn’t agree with you more David. Once you have steady revenue, THEN you can go out and chase the big fish, but if you’re ignoring the day-to-day, everything will slip. Thanks again for the contribution!