How do you grow your business? How do you get your business projects started and completed?
It's normal to want to wait for the perfect moment to start a project. However, that's usually a mistake. A tiny, random project can be started right away. And in a little while, a whole decade or two decades pass.
Find out how tiny, random projects make a huge difference.
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Would you launch a project that took 8 hours a week and had no guarantee of success?
Back in November 2014, we embarked on a slightly crazy mission. We decided to start up a podcast, without realising what we were up against. Almost immediately we ran into trouble. We didn't have all the equipment needed, not enough knowledge of post-processing or editing and yet those were minor issues.
The biggest problem of all was that a 30 minute podcast often took well over 8 hours to produce. To add to this mix of uncertainty, we had no idea if anyone would listen. If they did listen, how would that translate into greater sales or clients?
This is the creator's eternal dilemma, isn't it?
Almost all of us don't shirk away from hard work. Yet, almost all of us crave a tiny dollop of predictability. In the case of the podcast, there were no such guarantees. At some point we just had to decide to go ahead with the project, knowing fully well that we'd have to keep going for at least a year. Then, all of a sudden, ten years pass.
Or twenty-one years—if you're looking at 5000bc, our membership site
When we started with 5000bc, we had no intention of doing anything special or even spectacular. The first version of 5000bc was simply a blog. You could ask questions on that blog which were then answered in detail.
The fee for the membership was just $8.95 (for the entire year), which as you can tell, isn't a whole deal of revenue. Yet, twenty one years later, the membership site is still chugging along nicely, generating a substantial income and creating a small, tight-knit community.
The same concept applied to the Article Writing Course, which started with zero fanfare, and continues to be the most in-demand course many decades later. Or the cartooning course, which once started out absolutely free (yes, $0).
All of these projects were once tiny, and quite random, without any guarantee for revenue or success. However, with time all of them have been instrumental in keeping the business running. All of these projects also had teething problems, and ongoing challenges along the way.
Suddenly, ten or twenty years pass.
Suddenly, you have 500+ podcasts. Quite as suddenly you have 200,000 posts in the forum at the membership site. One course leads to another, and you have a sense of leverage you'd never expected.
All of this information isn't new to you and a new project is a luxury few of us can afford. Yet, it might be a good idea to start something today. Not next year, or the middle of next year, but right now. A tiny, random project is the way to go.
