Chasing Rainbows

by Michelle Read DeGarmo

I once employed a subcontractor who had lots of opinions about how I ran my business. He was quick to point out how he’d do something better or different, and what, in his opinion, I was doing wrong. Of course this grew tiresome, but this man was good at his job and put in lots of billable hours for my company. So I would smile and thank him for his input.

It’s not that his ideas were bad. In fact, many made sense in the short term. Most of his ideas were good, just not fully formed. Do this thing, it will make money. Market yourself this way, you’ll get more clients. In his mind I was obstinate for failing to chase my company’s full potential and limiting its growth.

He had once owned a brewery which ultimately failed because, among other issues, it expanded quickly without a stable foundation upon which to rebuild should new growth become untenable. One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as a small business owner is that just because something can make money, doesn’t necessarily make it a good investment.

Sustainable success is achieved with balance between big ideas and carefully calculated risks. Some of the best ideas can easily turn out to be rainbow chasing.

What my well-meaning colleague didn’t recognize is that going in a million different directions at once erodes the foundation upon which a company is built. A good idea only has true merit if it can be reasonably implemented without siphoning too many existing resources. If doing something new will make money, but doing the new thing means doing less of something that already makes money and already has a strong client base, that growth is not sustainable.

Even the best ideas will have setbacks in the implementation phase. This is the place where so many new businesses stumble. Ideas are great – we need a constant flow of new ideas for our businesses to remain relevant – and not all great ideas are a good idea. These two truths are not mutually exclusive. That part is really important.