The Death Throes of a Business?

Of the last few months, my business has been on life support in the ICU. I can't even begin to tell you all of the mistakes I've made this year. Needless to say, they've cost me BIG.

But I've also learned some very important lessons:

1. I don't learn lessons very well - Even the pain for thousands of dollars in PPC losses wasn't able to make me change my practices and temper my impatience.
2. My problem isn't lack of knowledge, it's lack of implementation - I have some AWESOME cutting edge ideas. However, I get bored and never bring them to fruition before moving on to the next "great idea".
3. My period of "Focus" was too unfocused - Even though I decided to focus on PPC -> Clickbank affiliate products, that was still too unfocused. I need to focus on a hand full of sites and get them to max profitability, then move on to the next handful.
4. Impatience has cost me my freedom - I was supposed to quit this year but being too impatient about doing so resulted in forcing me to stay in my job.
   
5. I can't do this alone.

I've probably learned more this year than in the previous 3. That's both in tactical and strategic terms.

Now the strategy is different. With the business almost being ready to move out of the ICU, things HAVE to change for me to make this work.

The new strategy:

1. Focus on 4 markets and 4 markets ONLY.
2. Build traffic through SEO practices.
3. Build a list.
4. Later develop a product in each market.
5. Once the 4 markets are generating enough to let me hit my Exit Income (at least $225/day profit consistently & sustainably), I move on to the next 4 markets.
   

I will follow this strategy religiously. As I've learned, implementation is not my strong suit. I'm more of an ideaman and leader. Rather than fight my nature and make myself be an implementor, I'm going to take the wise advice of the E-Myth and Tim Ferriss.

I should be working ON my business, not IN it.

I DON'T want to be building another job for myself - I'm doing this to be free.

So in order to make this happen, I had to do something drastic....

On November 20, 2009, I hired my first fulltime employee!