Are you actually building something, or just generating revenue?

I’ve learnt this lesson the hard way! It’s the sole reason I completely reinvented our business after 10 years of going in a single direction.

After a decade of trying, but not really succeeding to any great degree — I realised something was critically wrong.

Our skillset was extremely competitive, We were a vastly experienced, passionate, forward thinking team that was widely respected across the industry.

Delivery was sound, new business was the least of our concerns. We were in a fortunate position to cherry-pick the projects and clients we wanted — so why were we struggling to gain real traction?

Because we were building on sand, not bricks!

Actually, we were building absolutely nothing — apart from revenue, and that was our downfall. The type of projects we were doing, i.e. websites, offered very little in the way of retention, especially as an outsourced outfit.

We weren’t building anything, we were developing websites, securing that short-term revenue fix and moving onto the next one. The more revenue we generated, and the bigger the team grew, the more revenue we needed to replace.

We needed to stop. We needed to retain something. We needed to build something. We needed to build financial stability, a foundation to move past the month to month trading cycle we were in.

We needed to stop building websites!

Well, websites that offered little in the way of retention. The projects we undertook needed to go towards building something, and the immediate requirement was recurring revenue.

So, we made the sift. Refocused on custom business applications, software or eCommerce.

Something that had shelf-life, something that was sticky, business critical and required ongoing support and maintenance. Projects that provided IP opportunities, product ideas, or even JV options. Not throwaway commodities such as marketing websites built on opensource technology.

Now we’re building something, we’re retaining something, we’re building on bricks. One brick at a time, but they are there to stay. This will provide us with the foundation to grow and scale in a sustainable way.

We’re a couple of years into that journey now, and… it was the right decision.

So, what are you building?