At a business mastermind event in Mexico this past weekend, I chatted with a successful e-commerce entrepreneur I’ve known for years.
His e-commerce business produces 90% of his income. His side-hustle software business produces 90% of his headaches.
At one point, that software business seemed promising. Then, competitors entered.
It’s a marginal, $10K/month revenue business.
I told him, “Throw it away.”
“But,” he said, “I’ve put so much time into it.”
Holding on to that which doesn’t deserve it is what holds us back.
Burn the boats
When Hernán Cortés landed on the shores of Mexico, he and his men faced a decision: retreat or fight.
He ordered men to burn the ships.
Retreat was no longer an option.
We fixate on how much we’ve invested when the opportunities in front of us are greater.
This is sunk cost.
To overcome this thinking error, we can make it impossible to hold on by eliminating the possibility of retreat.
Burn businesses
I’m working with a couple of smart guys who own a highly-promising e-commerce business.
It’s in a market they know, sourcing products they know how to source.
Yet, they have another business. It’s in a market they don’t know, with customers they don’t understand.
Could they learn that market?
Sure. Just like they learned the other.
But there’s only so much time.
In one business, they’re skilled operators; in the other, they’re beginners.
My advice: Forget the second business. Focus all energy on the one in which they have the greatest advantage.
Burn products
We used to sell 50+ flavors of coffee. Today, we sell less than 15.
Most new products don’t work out. That’s OK.
Test small. Give new products lots of marketing love.
Keep the ones that work.
Burn the others.
Burn strategies
Early on, we tried a free plus shipping offer at Lifeboost.
We got customers—the wrong kind.
We terminated that offer.
We tried aggressively selling on our TikTok shop for 6 months.
It didn’t work.
So we stopped.
Try every new marketing strategy you can.
Keep what works.
Throw away what doesn’t.
Remove what doesn’t matter, and what matters grows automatically
What boat must you burn so moving forward is the only remaining option?
—Matt