Prepare Your Fields, Then Build Your House

The last couple weeks I have been doing a “proverbs Saturday” and I am really enjoying it.

This week the Proverb is:

Now, before anything else, it’s important to look at the time period in which this was written to best understand the author. Mostly, the book of proverbs written in an agrarian society.

After I realized that, I realized that preparing your fields meant more than just chores… it was their entire livelihood.

That’s when I thought about how this could relate to business.

So often when people get ready to build a business, they go out, create business cards, make letter heads, get that new desk, new computer, printer, buy all the office supplies they will ever need, pay a logo designer, website designer… and yet have not sold a single thing or clients. I think that’s a bit like trying to build your house before you have prepared your fields. Ok… some things are required but let’s look at a few examples below (real life, yo).

A friend of mine just launched a new business. Well… sorta. The business is to start selling a particular product for a commission (real life affiliate marketing?). So before having any sales or anything, he goes out, pays a lawyer to incorporates his business into an LLC, pays a bunch of money for a logo design so he can then get business cards printed, buys (too many) domain names, gets web hosting (keep in mind this is an offline business), and continues spending money. You probably don’t even have to guess that he has zero clients… or sales. Sure there are some prospects, but zero sales. For this type of business the only thing that is required is maybe some sales material that he could probably get from the manufacturer of the product.

It almost reminds me of this episode of The Office where the main character Michael decides to leave the paper company and start his own. The morning comes when it’s time to start his business and so he has a check list of things to do first. Make a huge breakfast… work out… get dressed… uhh… make more breakfast… etc. He was almost paralyzed about what to do first.

Ok last story… Another friend of mine wanted to become a professional blogger. Awesome! Blogging is one of those things that really can be rewarding but is very hard to build. First thing my friend does is go and buy a second computer monitor so that he can blog better and then later goes to get a free wordpress blog because he can’t afford web hosting. Doh!

So all that to say… if you’re looking to start an online business, my recommendation is to focus on the things that make you money. Don’t go out and try to be flashy, have all the networking tools, and prestigious titles like CEO of an LLC… Just go make money. Once you are making money, THEN focus on the business side of things. But even then… seriously, focus on your core things that will bring income to the business and don’t spend it on things that won’t.