Entrepreneurship and selling is hard business. The ambiguity and uncertainty can stump many people who are used to a well-paved path.
Do this and you get that.
Just tell me what to do.
You may know what makes money now. That’s a great thing to have. It may become boring over time, but for now, it is a baseline. And having a well-refined baseline is the new job security when it comes to entrepreneurship and growing a business.
You want to keep that baseline intact, working and efficient. The operational processes, sourcing vendors, customer acquisition and all the other pieces of the puzzle that you have figured out should be a cash cow that you can tap into. It’s a culmination of your value. It is knowledge.
Other people new to your industry or niche will have a hard time figuring out all the nuances.
And when you want to grow, you will face new challenges. You will be back on a path of uncertainty. And you could fail. What worked before may not apply to your next horizon or desire, even if it is somewhat related.
One strategy is to try new ventures and ideas in parallel so you don’t tamper with what is working. You keep what is known as a cash cow and experiment with new ideas, products or markets in a separate project altogether. This keeps your baseline running and funding you.
If you do try to enhance what is working and get tangled from the complexities of growth, then your recourse is to always get back to what you have known to work and retry again when you have further insights and motivations.
Ultimately, smart entrepreneurship and selling is about mitigating risk and going with what works in the marketplace and in nature. Your ability to manage that risk going after something larger can be tied to how you manage your baseline as part of your overall strategy.