Building two businesses at the same time is not something we would recommend to anyone. Both businesses are growing more slowly than they otherwise would as a result. One, on the brink of death. As of now, we do not know how we will make payroll for the next month.
As Craig frequently asks “how do you chase two bunnies without losing them both?”
With the Eyes Wide Open business, we serve creative visionary entrepreneurs. With New Law Business Model, we serve lawyers. Two bunnies.
So why are we doing it?
Because we love both of these darn bunnies, the people who work for them and the people they support.
Tonight we were out to dinner with one of the greatest online entrepreneurs we know and he asked the question that every smart entrepreneur asks when they hear about what we are doing — “why don’t you just focus on the lawyer business? That’s clearly the smarter financial choice.”
Yes, it is. But, neither one of us has ever been primarily motivated by money. And, our hearts won’t let us just drop Eyes Wide Open, even though it’s really hard right now to chase both these bunnies. We love to support entrepreneurs up to great things in the world.
As a result of a challenge with our merchant account, and a big overhead because we’ve built a team so Ali can focus on what she’s best at and give up running the business and doing all the work herself, Eyes Wide Open is struggling to make it’s next few payrolls.
In the past, Ali would just whip out her credit card or dip into the line of credit to save the day, but that’s no longer an option. And no one else is swooping in with big bucks to do it. So, it’s time to get resourceful.
It’s sure easy to think about throwing in the towel when it gets hard like this. But, we see it as an opportunity for innovation. And the truth is that it’s provided a tremendous chance for the Eyes Wide Open Biz Dev Manager, Danielle, to step up and show us all what she’s got.
So we’ve cut our payroll to the bone, eliminated all non-essential expenses and Danielle’s been charged with innovating an offer or two that can bring in enough income to get the business through 11/27 when the merchant account releases funds again and the money from the Nov. 1 LIFT Live Implementation launch hits the bank. Her limitation is that the offer cannot involve Ali’s time and all payments must run through PayPal so the money gets into the bank and the business can make payroll.
So, in the name of innovation, if you subscribe to the Eyes Wide Open newsletter (enter your name and email in the box up there in the right column) watch your email inbox very carefully over the next week for an email giving you the chance to get in on something that will never be offered again (Craig and Ali don’t even know what it is for sure), that will help you tremendously and will bring us the revenue to make payroll.
