James at Men with Pens posted How to Rip Off Your Band-Aid and Reinvent Your Business. I read it, thought it made a lot of sense – to others – and left. The post starts like this:

When you have a business – any kind of business – there are two ways to grow:

* You can tinker away and make changes to accommodate growth in little bits as you go along
* You can shut the whole thing down and start over

Most people do the first. It’s easier to pick away at what you have and make little tweaks and improvements here and there, fixing up your business as you go along. You add a new service.

Something has pulled me back to that post several times today. I’ve been doing the first, some tweaking and adding a service or two. But to be honest I’m not really satisfied with what I have created, it feels like a patchwork. Nice in a way but it could be better.

No one has forever.

I think this is what bothers me – No one has forever. Nothing new about that but in this context it’s a major poke.

So if there’s somewhere you’d like to be with your business, quit picking at the band-aid. Take a few days off and think about what you’d like to do with your business and where you want to be. Plan. Prepare. Decide on your products, your services, your target market, your web image, and your goals.

Then just do it. Stop your world. Rip the band-aid off and put your business on hold for a week, a month, or maybe even two months. Do all the work you have to do to heal up what’s broken, fix what needs fixing and get your whole business set and ready for the next level.

There is somewhere I’d like to be with my business. I guess it’s time to stop procrastinating on this and do the work needed to create the business I really would love to have. See you in the new year with a new and better business…

Are You Using The Wrong Business Model?

In the weekly wrap from Copyblogger was a link to Are You Using The Wrong Business Model? at The Launch Coach. It’s a great post that starts like this:

Your business can be one of two things: A ramp, or a treadmill.

A ramp leads to a bigger and bigger business. A treadmill leads to more of the same, and a plateau of sales. (Or, if you have a fancy treadmill, a gentle incline that doesn’t get you that much farther.)

A ramp gets you to the next level. A treadmill doesn’t.

My current business model falls in the treadmill bracket. I’ll do my best to make my new business model as a ramp.