The Solopreneur Challenge AKA The Curse of Too Many Ideas

OK, this is going to be one of those open, honest, and I’m feeling challenged posts… the kind in which I have to talk myself through a business challenge with you…

With the eMoms site redesign almost complete, I’m tasked with a big question:

What do I do next to grow revenue?

I’m like most serial entrepreneurs – I have no shortage of great ideas. In fact, I was reading somewhere last week that some entrepreneur had set up a web site to offer his un-fulfilled business ideas up for free – I don’t think Springwise was what I was reading about, but there is a market for business ideas, that’s for sure.

I broke down and talked to my friend Jen Brady yesterday – she’s worked for some of the biggest companies on the planet on their online marketing and media campaigns.

I lamented my URL choice (had I known that my readers would be about 40% male now, I would have certainly chosen something without ‘Mom’ in the address bar!), my ADHD project management skills, and my confusion about just what the heck to do next.

She challenged me with some tough questions as well – specifically

“Just how much knowledge do you give away for free before you start charging people to help them make money?”

Tough indeed. There’s a fine line here in the blogosphere between offering up our expertise via blog posts, rather than putting it into a book or doing coaching/consulting work.

And frankly, this is a really tough question for me to answer, because I value giving so highly. 24 hours later, I’m still pondering Jen’s question in my mind. (This is where you’re invited to weigh in with your own posts and comments on the subject…)

The other side of the equation is that there’s just one person behind this growing blog. In order to keep it growing, I need to find ways to free up bandwidth while maintaining quality and a great user experience.

I’m pondering things like taking on co-authors (not just guest-posters), launching different niche blogs, creating a separate full-blown site for the BlogJolt project, starting a podcast or video blog, and diving more deeply into affiliate marketing.

I could do all of them, and do them all well.

That’s the (albeit good) problem of The Curse of Too Many Ideas.

I’ll be totally honest with you on this one – I’m having a hard time coaching myself through this decision making process!

(Here’s where I finally get my ah-ha in this post!)
But the real problem comes down to when I know the answer to my question – but I don’t exactly like the answer.

I know the very next thing I need to do is get my info product done. But I hate the level of discipline it takes to make that happen. Starting new projects is SO much more interesting than finishing old projects that have lost their glamour.

And this is where I say: SFW. Get it done.

This is the very un-sexy and un-interesting part of running a business. And the part that has sunk more than one or two ships (and blogs) in the entrepreneurial sea of life.

Thankfully, authoring a blog forces us to be far more accountable than not. When things get challenging, it’s pretty easy to say to yourself, “well, I just won’t do that right now” – if nobody knows you just made a decision to blow something off!!

With the transparency of the blogosphere, it’s much harder to hide behind the wall of procrastination when your readers know full well what’s going on.

So here is where I have to throw down the gauntlet Monday Motivation Style. Sometimes, it’s the only way I can get myself to do the crap I’ve been putting off.

I commit to you, dear readers, to have at least three
audio interviews done by March 31st.
And spend 8 more hours on the eBook.

If I don’t, I’ll pony up $100 to five ten of you. That’s one thousand bucks if I don’t get them done.

Don’t count your pennies before they hatch – I work well under pressure.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. The Entrepreneurs Curse: Is it a Curse or The Gift that Keeps On Giving?
2. Solopreneur Strategies for a Down Economy
3. When the Solopreneur gets Swamped…