Why Disrupt Your Business
Scenario: "Dude, we're frickin' fine where we are. Let's not fix something that ain't broken. Yay!" How most people unfortunately run their businesses:
- 1970: Sell laundry detergent.
- 1980: Sell laundry detergent.
- 1990: Sell laundry detergent.
- 2000: Sell laundry detergent.
- 2007: Sell laundry detergent.
Sticking to your "knitting" might sound fine-and-dandy, but it'll destroy your $$$ potential. Why? Market conditions change every minute. People want new things. Businesses want more innovation. Yadda, yadda, yadda. What was most profitable two years ago won't be so profitable in two months. When you disrupt your business, you ensure your company exploits the most profitable opportunities.
Are You Experiencing The Big Bad Veteran Trap?
The "big-bad-veteran trap" involves continually doing whatever you're doing -- without looking for more profitable opportunities. For instance:
- Instead of testing tea sales, you continue selling coffee.
- Instead of experimenting with luxury homes, you continue selling middle-priced homes.
- Instead of exploring computer accessories, you continue selling personal computers.
What Happens When You Don't Experiment
You leave gobs of potential profits on the table. Here's a scenario:
- Say Opportunity A is more profitable than Opportunity B.
- You're doing only Opportunity B.
- Result: Maximum profit potential = unrealized.
Most companies fall into the vicious trap of: "Hey, this worked in the past! Let's continue doing it"-mentality. Yes, you could still make money doing what you're doing; but, you could generate exponentially more $$$ if you tested other opportunities.
"So, how do I disrupt my business?"
The steps:
- First, don't dump whatever you're doing -- instead, use it as your control group.
- Then, experiment with opportunities that can profitably knock the !@#$ out of your control group.
- If you find a more profitable opportunity than your control group, reconsider doing your control group.
For example, consider: You + Web Design Business
Say your company provides web design, where you're profiting $50K every 30 days. Now, you tell your badass: "Hey, let's see if we can do better by disrupting our web design business! Yay!" So, you follow these steps:
- Continue providing web design.
- Experiment with selling proprietary accounting software that could potentially disrupt your web design business.
- If your accounting software business profits more than $50K every 30 days, you reconsider providing web design services.
What do we mean by "reconsider providing web design services?"
Logically, since you just found a more profitable opportunity -- you could dump it, and you'd still be better off without it. But, to lessen your risk, here's what you could do:
- Prioritize your resources into your accounting software business.
- Provide web design services during "downtime."
(Please note: We do recommend having multiple product lines because you reduce your risks. But, prioritize your multiple offerings -- and cater your resources, accordingly.)
The Continually-$$$-Rotating Cycle
The difference between these business-builders:
- Bad business-builders don't disrupt their businesses.
- Amateur business-builders disrupt their businesses once.
- Badass business-builders continually disrupt their businesses.
If you want to generate big bucks for your company, follow through this ridiculously awesome cycle that never ends:
- Step 1: Define control group.
- Step 2: Disrupt control group.
- Step 3: Repeat Step 1.
That is, continually find opportunities to disrupt your current product/service/offering line for the ever-changing market conditions.
Hack your shizzle, frequently.
If you enjoyed Why Disrupt Your Business, get a complimentary subscription to our freshest articles through email or through your feed reader.
Posted March 06 in Finance, Innovation |
Reply to "Why Disrupt Your Business"
(Already registered? Login here.)


7 Comments
on "Why Disrupt Your Business"alex28 (Rank: #2100)
Very nice site! is it yours too
alex10 (Rank: #2238)
Very nice site! is it yours too
evaline8 (Rank: #2076)
Hi guys, my names Eva and im completely new to this forum.
I hope that I'll learn and share a lot of interesting things.
Thanks,
Eva
advancetina (Rank: #2101)
Hi Everyone,
Just found this site and thought it might be useful to chat to people who are trying to accomplish the same as me!
I spend too much of my life on the internet and look forward to chatting to you all and picking up and sharing ideas along the way!
Tina
usamainadv (Rank: #2246)
Hello everybody!
My name is Allan, I live in Fort Worth, TX.
I am here to network / interact with other people for sharing knowledge, discussing ideas, seeking advice, find business partners & the like.
Regards,
Allan
luffie (Rank: #1178)
It seems avira can't open and scan the files containing the virus, ive tried spybot, but it only removes spyware and not the virus itself. Its causing the my computer to run extremely slow, its always oprating on 100 percent even if im not doing anything, any tips on how to remove it? thanks in advance santoramaa
onlineclick (Rank: #1414)
Hi everyone
Just introduce myself: I am a man (says my wife), I am 50 years old (hmm, that looks bad isn't it?) and I am a terrible bad programmer (I say myself).
My hobbies: computer (of course), my 17 years old son and of course my wife. I like to play billiard, I do a very little bit and very simple programming in VB and I try to make a site for my billiard-club in the near future.
Keep smiling