MBA2111 Should You Diversify or Go All In With One Business?

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night, not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things, of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers, and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts. So doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform. Ready to save on new tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits. Perks include Dell rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals.

Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 RBA Show. Because a better you is a better business. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014. And in today's lesson you will learn should you diversify or go all in with one business? It's common for business builders for entrepreneurs to have several smaller projects, side projects, ideas that they're tinkering with. Sometimes these businesses or projects are related, some of them are not. Some of them are just a result of needing to scratch a niche. But often some of these businesses start to take off more than one. They start growing, they start becoming profitable. You got a little bit of a pickle on your hands because you really can't spend equal time on all of them. You only have a certain amount of hours in the day. Then you might be wondering should you just focus on one business, go all in and try to see it grow? Or is it better to diversify your time, your effort, your risk against a few different businesses? In today's episode, we take a deep dive on this topic. I share with you my own experiences in the past. Currently Running several businesses, the advantages, the disadvantages, and some of the things you need to consider when it comes to making this decision. Because it all boils down to what you want, what kind of life you want to live, if it's compatible with your lifestyle and your goals. Let's find out. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

You've made it on time for the McDonald's breakfast menu. You think to yourself, finally, I could start my day with my perfect breakfast. But what if breakfast could be even more perfect with the hot honey sausage egg biscuit it finally is. This won't last forever, so go to McDonald's and get it while you can.

If you follow different business owners, creators, entrepreneurs on social media, you'll notice that many people have several revenue streams or several projects or businesses. Like I mentioned, some of these are related and some of them are not really related at all. For example, full entrepreneur and buddy of mine, Matt Giovanese, at one point was running a podcast, Swim University, which is a swimming pool and hot tub care blog and website, Moneylab Co, which is a site that he talks about all his financial and business experiences. Roasty, which was a coffee roasting, coffee fan or aficionado website Brew Cabin, which is all about brewing your own beer. Plus he sold courses and he sold informational products, sold ads, sold affiliate products. So he was really spread across the board with several different projects and I'm pretty sure I left a few off. And he was doing this with a small handful of people and some freelancers. Eventually he stopped some of these businesses, he left some partnerships, sold one of the businesses, and really got down to the core businesses or revenue streams that really move the needle, actually matter and really make him a living. It's not that he didn't enjoy these projects, it's just that he didn't have all the time in the world to dedicate to all of them. All the time. I actually sit down with Matt Giminisi for an extended interview and will be airing that episode soon, so look out for that. I myself, when I started my entrepreneurial journey, had several businesses, several experiments. And this is good in the beginning because you want to learn what kind of entrepreneur you want to be, what kind of business you want to run, what kind of products kind of motivate you, what kind of teams you want to run, and you want to see what sticks, you want to see what the market needs. You want to see what actually blows up and starts to make you money. But once that starts happening, you're going to have to make some choices because you need to feed your baby. You got to feed the thing that's growing. So if something is growing and making money, you've got to give it more time and attention. You can't just give it it less time and attention. And because we have a limited amount of time in each day, that means something else is going to suffer, something else is not going to have as much time, and you're going to basically have to triage the projects you're working on. So I'm a big believer that in the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, it's okay to have several projects. It's okay not to go all in on one thing, because you're still learning about entrepreneurship, what kind of business you want to run, what kind of products or services or customers you want to serve. And by diversifying, you get to try and experiment and see what works for you. Also, in my experience, it increases the likelihood of you succeeding because you're trying different things. You're kicking up dust instead of trying just one thing. Now, when some of these business start to take off and you need to grow them and it needs more of your time, you need to take a look at all these projects you're working on. Which ones can you easily cut out that are not making you any money? Which ones can you maybe outsource? Its duties so you can hire somebody to take care of its work or its content or its upkeep? And I would only do this if it's profitable. Meaning, let's say you had a side business that was making you $3,000 a month, and it's going to cost you $500 to hire somebody to take care of it, to do some of the tasks you need to keep it running. You're still profitable. $2,500, it's well worth it. You could see where it goes. But for most of us, and in my experience, there's going to be a project or two where you're just going to have to say goodbye to or just sunset. And that's okay, because you have a new thing that is making money that's taking off, and you want to make sure you strike the iron while it's hot. It's very important for you to capitalize on momentum. So if something's taking off, you got to give it your full force. You got to really give it the attention it deserves, at least the lion's share of your time and attention. Now, many people worry about doing this because they feel like, hey, if I do that and neglect some of my side projects. It leaves me vulnerable. What if my business has taken off now and doesn't do so well in the future? I have no fallback and I understand this line of thinking, I understand this logic. But you're not actually giving yourself a fair picture because you're relying on the fact that your side projects are going to take off too, and that they could be your fallback, but they haven't, and that's why you're not focusing on them. The other thing I learned in entrepreneurship is it's not easy to have a successful business, have a successful product or service. So when you do have one, you got to grab it with two hands, you got to really focus on it to make sure you get the most potential out of it. You don't want to squander that opportunity, especially if there's demand and you're making sales and money's coming in. Now you might have a very special situation, which I've been in before, where you have two businesses that are doing just as good as each other and you're kind of splitting your time between the two and you feel like one is not getting as much attention as the other or vice versa, and you're not sure what to do. Full transparency. I'm in this situation right now. I have this show, this podcast that I love dearly. I started back in 2014. It's highly successful. It's one of the top 30 business podcasts. It gets hundreds of thousands of listeners every single day. That's super hard to do. It's rare to have a podcast like that. But I also have a software business, webinar Ninja, which I've been building for the last eight years and growing and nurturing. And my time is kind of split between the two Now. What I've done is I recognize the fact that one of these businesses is an asset I can sell, and that's a software business. I can easily sell the software business at some point in my career and I know that after that happens, I'm going to want to continue the podcast. So I want to keep the podcast going and I still want to invest my time there so that it's there for me. I serve that podcast now, so it's there for me when I do sell the business, if I do at some point. And whenever you are working on one business that can be sold at one point, you got to build that out so that it's a well oiled machine, so that you have a team around it that's working on it, that you have operating procedures that are self sufficient, that if one day somebody wants to buy it, it's easy to kind of hand over with everything in place. So always keep in mind when you have projects going, which one of these are you building an asset and kind of building something that could be somebody else's in the future? And which one of these is your own thing, your own personal brand that you want to keep on doing that could be writing books, that could be creating your own YouTube channel, your own personal brand that you won't necessarily want to sell, but rather keep it as your thing and your passion project or even your passion business. Now that's not to say that I don't love my software business and I don't love working on it and the team behind it, but every business has a different nature and a different structure. So recognize that when you're splitting your time so that when you're spending your time on that business, that is an asset that you might be selling one day, you're spending time making it an asset, making it easy to hand over, putting the right people in place, right managers, the right employees that are going to do the work, regardless if you're watching them or not. This is kind of like getting into real estate and having a YouTube channel, right? You buy a piece of real estate, you might have a mortgage, you're renting it out, maybe you're getting some income from rent, you're improving the piece of real estate, you're maintaining it, you're building value. And then one day you might sell that property down the line. The things and the actions you're going to do to build value in that real estate is going to be different than your YouTube channel.

They put hot honey sauce on the snack wrap. McDonald's outdid themselves again. The classic snack wrap we all know and love paired with the sweet heat of hot honey sauce. Just what we needed to make it even more perfect. You know the drill, so go to McDonald's and try it today.

There's one thing we did not discuss when it comes to diversifying or going all in, and that's you, your lifestyle. Some people don't like to juggle more than one thing at a time. They just want to focus on one thing a day. They don't want to have too much responsibility hanging over them or risk. And if that's you, it's okay for you to go all in on a business, especially if it's doing well. Keep it moving, keep it growing, even if that's the type of business that you're going to sell one day and take that sale and turn into another business or another asset. The point here is that you became an entrepreneur so that it serves your lifestyle, not the other way around. Make sure you're not, you know, burning the candle from both ends for no reason. Question your decisions. Maybe you're diversifying or you're running two businesses because you're afraid to let go of extra revenues like money on the table. Why would I let go of that? Well, you also have to think about your time. Your time is more valuable than any money. If you going all in on a business instead of you diversifying or having two businesses at the same time, it means you're going to save two days a week where you can spend time extra with your family or friends or go and travel. And that's going to enrich your life more. There's a good chance that you would enjoy that decision more than having two businesses. There's a good chance as well as that if you go all in on that one business, you're going to be able to make up that revenue that you lost on the business that you sold or got rid of or ended. Your happiness and the way you want to live your life is a big part of this decision making. It also matters where you are in life. What stage in life are you? If you're in your early 20s, you might be full of energy and okay to run four or five businesses at a time. You might be in your 60s and you're thinking about retirement and you want to start winding things down. Maybe running multiple businesses is just not something as appealing to you. So it's really important to be self aware, to know what you actually want and need and choose accordingly. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Himalaya. We're on every single one. Go ahead and hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. If you love the show and you want to show us love, go ahead and share it with your friends and family over on social media. Send them the link 100 MBA net so they can subscribe to the podcast. Before I go on, I'll leave you with this. Having multiple businesses, especially if you're going to separate these business entities separately, can get costly. There are some fees that you're going to have to take on every time you start a business. Every time you maintain a business, you file taxes, all that kind of stuff. Speak to your lawyer. Speak to your financial expert. This is not financial advice or legal advice, but there are expenses every time you have a business. So keep in mind that there is a cost involved when you do have more than one business. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode, free Out Friday, where we discuss the question, do you need a business coach? Tune in tomorrow for that topic. I'll see you then. Take care.

They put hot honey sauce on the snack wrap. McDonald's outdid themselves again. The classic snack wrap we all know and love paired with the sweet heat of hot honey sauce. Just what we needed to make it even more perfect. You know the drill, so go to McDonald's and try it today.