Sometimes It Is Good To Quit And Let Things Go

Often in business, and life, it is good to quit and let things go.

I quite like it when people say “winners never quit”, and I always reply with “yes they do!”. But it is when that matters, they know the right time and they are able to let go. A bit like when big businesses expand into new regions. We have seen companies lose millions from it, but instead of pushing on they realise it isn’t working and quit to focus on their home land.

A Few Examples
Yesterday I decided to cut a revenue stream from my online business which has been battered by the credit crunch. It has dived from generating over $400 per month to around $40 per month now (falling horribly over the last 6-12 months). So I’ve called it quits on it, I am very disappointed as over the next year it is thousands of pounds less in revenue that I had forecast!

In the past I’ve also lost money on shares (via spread betting). I set-up a football website hoping to dropship football memorabilia which didn’t work so I quit it. I set-up a debt books site but couldn’t make that work so I quit it. And I spent months on an ecommerce site where the dropshipper then ceased trading just as I had got going making sales, I couldn’t find another dropshipper to fill in so I just killed of the website.

The Lesson
I’m trying to show that I run my online business full-time and love it, yet I’ve had plenty of situations where I had to quit, and I’m really happy I did instead of plodding on with those ideas!

Know Why You Are Doing It
I recently finished reading a book about sharedealing. It spoke about when shares move against you and you lose money. If you researched and everything suggested it was going to rise, then it was the “right” trade, it may not have been successful but it was still in theory “right” (IE long-term you will profit). As long as you know why you are doing the trade you should not be downbeat about the trade.

The same is true for business. Know why you are doing what you are doing. If your market research shows there is a gap in the market for your product, and your costs/profit margins and other factors add up then you have a viable business on your hands. If it doesn’t work then nevermind, the research suggested it would so it was still the “right” decision to set-up the business.

If Things Aren’t Going Great, It Doesn’t Mean Quit
This relates to what I’ve just said above. If your figures add up nicely and your plans are good then you should carry on, going back to the “know why you are doing what you are doing”, if your reasons still stand true then carry on. Quitting as I’ve said is fine, but it has to be done at the right time.