E. 328: The Second Business You Didn’t Know You Started

About 10 years ago, I created a more affordable way for people to work with me. We were selling $20,000 branding projects, and plenty of people told me they wanted our help but couldn’t afford us. So I created a DIY program that taught the same process for somewhere between $500 and $1,000.

I assumed it would be easy to sell. It wasn’t. After more than a year of investing time, money, and energy into figuring it out, I finally realized why: I hadn’t created a cheaper version of my existing offer. I had accidentally started a second business.

The program required a different audience, message, promise, sales strategy, funnel, and business model. Selling ten $20,000 projects through relationships is completely different from selling 400 $500 courses through content and email marketing.

This happens in all kinds of ways. You might serve two very different audiences, offer completely different services, or try to use the same process for small businesses and much larger companies. It may look like one business from your perspective, but it can still fracture your attention and make it harder to become known for one thing.

In this episode, I’m breaking down how to recognize when you’re unintentionally building multiple businesses and why focus can help you become more profitable faster. I also talk about what happens when we finally create more time and freedom, only to immediately fill it with another idea because being busy is what feels normal.

There is nothing wrong with building multiple businesses or pursuing more than one income stream. But it should be a deliberate choice. When you make one business profitable and sustainable first, you can invest in the next one with far more clarity, patience, and control.

Find this episode for free on your favorite podcast player.

Tune into this episode to hear:

Why my affordable DIY program was actually a completely different business
How selling ten $20,000 projects differs from selling 400 $500 courses
The hidden ways multiple audiences and offers can fracture your attention
Why focusing on one market makes it easier to become known as the expert
How to build multiple businesses without trying to build them all at once
Why some business owners immediately refill the time they worked so hard to free up
The questions to ask when your business feels harder than it needs to be