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There comes a time in every successful Entrepreneur’s journey when it’s about so much more than the next ka-ching to your bank account.
Revenue still matters. But you’ll get to the point where you’re not willing to twist yourself like a pretzel to get it.
You’ll start weighing each “yes” to clients—and each income stream you consider—on a new, very personal spectrum:
How much of my time will this take?
Is this smack dab inside my genius zone—the very best of my talents and how I like to work?
What benefits will this produce…
- for my audience?
- for how I spread this revolution I’m leading?
- for how I run/grow my business?
Will this give me more or less flexibility to do the other things on my priority list?
How will this contribute financially to my business relative to other ways I could spend my time?
This spectrum becomes even more important as you contemplate future shifts in how you work or live.
When I interviewed award-winning journalist Adam Davidson (and author of The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century) for my book, he shared his barometer in deciding how to move forward with new projects.
He measures them on four scales: fun, money, glory (for the project), and passion—and uses the scale to decide whether and when to make trade-offs.
If a new opportunity is all about the mission, the money isn’t so important. But if a project isn’t fun, on mission, or creating glory for the team, it had better pay REALLY well to earn a yes.
Here’s the thing: when you’re struggling to build your business, it feels like an impossible luxury to think about these things.
But once you hit your version of “enough”, asking yourself these questions is exactly how to build a powerful expertise business that suits you rather than lassoing an out-of-control monster.
The choice is yours.
Related: How to Leverage Your Weaknesses Like a Master Strategist