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Published: April 17, 2019, 1:08 p.m.

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So you figure you\\u2019re an entrepreneur. You have an idea. So you start building it out. Great! But then there\\u2019s all these other people doing all these other things. And you know you can do them better. So... what do you do

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This is Clickstarter, I\\u2019m Dante St James. This is episode 46\\u2026 Stay in your own lane.

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It\\u2019s tempting when you start up a new business, to try and cover everything. After all, you need the money. So if you\\u2019re a plumber, you might try your hand at tiling, bricklaying, painting or even gardening if it helps pay the bills. After all, new business is hard! It doesn\\u2019t work from Day 1, and often takes years to stabilise.

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The danger of staying this way for too long is that you risk swimming outside your lane and being no good at any of the things you\\u2019re doing. Especially if you are a sole trader doing it all yourself. You might have a certificate. You might have a bit of expertise and experience. But if you\\u2019re spending sixty percent of your time being a tiler, you\\u2019re not gonna be much of a plumber after a while.

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There is a particular kind of business owner who does suit the idea of swimming outside their lane and mixing it with the training squad instead of splashing about with the kids and their kickboards. That\\u2019s the entrepreneur. In fact, it\\u2019s almost a mandatory sign of being an entrepreneur to diversify their portfolio of skills and try new stuff all the time. Or even throw the proverbial spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. That\\u2019s because the entrepreneur isn\\u2019t necessarily doing the work themselves. They do all the hustling, the selling, the research, the travel, the organising of offshore staff and the high level work of workflow and systems to manage everything at a peak efficiency. But they aren\\u2019t doing the plumbing and tiling themselves. They\\u2019re back in the office sending the plumbers and tilers out to work and looking for a way to get more plumbing and tiling done for less cost without reducing their prices.

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But, let\\u2019s say you\\u2019re not that entrepreneur. You\\u2019re more the sole trader plumber barely paying their bills. Or you\\u2019re just making enough from doing bookkeeping and admin work from home to cover the rent and power. Should you suddenly start doing tiling or picking up some babysitting jobs to get some extra coin? Well\\u2026 maybe. But that extra stuff shouldn\\u2019t eat in to your core work. It becomes your side-gig. Or to continue with the swimming analogy, you\\u2019re hopping out of the pool and heading in to the gym. As someone who is side-gigging for a consulting firm, Google and Facebook right now, let me tell you it\\u2019s hard. Really hard. Because all the things I do, from running a digital agency, to being a digital business advisor , itinerant social media trainer and search engine marketing consultant, are related. Really closely related. So jumping from one gig to the other often doesn\\u2019t feel like you\\u2019re doing that at all. You\\u2019re just switching focus from one task to another, but where each task has a different boss attached to it. But I have it relatively easy compared to someone who is working full time at a job, and then coming home to do something completely unrelated to their core work. Or where you are doing that whole plumber by day, tiler by night thing. You\\u2019re not quite sure whether you\\u2019re a plumber, a tiler, or some abomination of a hybrid of both.

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This is why I tend to advise that those who are starting to gain some real momentum, stick to their lane. Stick to their plan. Stick to what is working. If you recall my previous words on how long small business can take to settle down, you\\u2019d know that you can\\u2019t expect everything to work straight away. And you can\\u2019t simply change direction based on a month of working at it. So, if you\\u2019ve got enough cash to last until things can start working right, stick to the plan. But if you\\u2019re a year in, and things aren\\u2019t even beginning to get anywhere near moving, then it might be time to see a business advisor and see if there\\u2019s something else at play that\\u2019s stopping you from going anywhere.

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Got a topic you\\u2019d like me to cover Email darwin@clickstarter.com.au or drop a message via facebook.com/clickstarter

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I\\u2019ll catch you over the Easter weekend as we continue to help your small business to get known, get found and stay known.

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