To get anywhere you have to start heading in the right direction and to build anything, you must have a firm foundation. Makes sense, right? Then why do so many young entrepreneurs and startup businesses pay so little attention to key early metrics when they’re just getting started? Is it hubris? Do we think “it can’t happen to me” so we ignore the facts? Who knows. What we can know is whether or not we’re being honest with ourselves as we build our businesses. Have we addressed these concerns, and are we building our dreams in such a way that they continue to grow in these areas? Here are a few questions to help inspire that result.
Where are your focus and your passion? This isn’t a question related to “are you doing what you love?” The idea here is, are you fully engaged in what you’re doing every day, or are you distracted by other opportunities, unrelated concerns, and nagging questions? If you’re not all in and totally focused, you can bet at least one of your competitors is.
Is what you do with your day driving sales or making work? One of the best questions every entrepreneur needs to consistently ask is this: am I doing what makes me money, or am I just doing stuff? The less “other stuff” you do, the better you will be. Yes, you need to be working on building the business, but, first and foremost, you need to be actively engaged in doing what makes you money. That doesn’t mean doing the work yourself, but it does mean staying engaged with the people and the systems that do.
Are you missing out on a profit center because you are unwilling to bend? Sure, a working system is a great thing, but is that system artificially putting a cap on your income? Are there areas of your business you could monetize that you just … don’t? How is your focus on retention and customer engagement? We all know that getting repeat customers is cheaper and more profitable than winning new customers, so why do we place so little emphasis on keeping those customers happy, and why don’t we put more effort into turning them into contagious fans?
Have we figured out what we don’t do well, so we can outsource it or stop doing it altogether? If you are offering services you aren’t any good at, you may want to reconsider that. Doing more of what you’re best at and less of what creates issues and customer complaints is rarely a bad idea.
To get anywhere you have to start heading in the right direction and to build anything, you must have a firm foundation. Makes sense, right? Then why do so many young entrepreneurs and startup businesses pay so little attention to key early metrics when they’re just getting started? Is it hubris? Do we think “it can’t happen to me” so we ignore the facts? Who knows. What we can know is whether or not we’re being honest with ourselves as we build our businesses. Have we addressed these concerns, and are we building our dreams in such a way that they continue to grow in these areas? Here are a few questions to help inspire that result.
Where are your focus and your passion? This isn’t a question related to “are you doing what you love?” The idea here is, are you fully engaged in what you’re doing every day, or are you distracted by other opportunities, unrelated concerns, and nagging questions? If you’re not all in and totally focused, you can bet at least one of your competitors is.
Is what you do with your day driving sales or making work? One of the best questions every entrepreneur needs to consistently ask is this: am I doing what makes me money, or am I just doing stuff? The less “other stuff” you do, the better you will be. Yes, you need to be working on building the business, but, first and foremost, you need to be actively engaged in doing what makes you money. That doesn’t mean doing the work yourself, but it does mean staying engaged with the people and the systems that do.
Are you missing out on a profit center because you are unwilling to bend? Sure, a working system is a great thing, but is that system artificially putting a cap on your income? Are there areas of your business you could monetize that you just … don’t? How is your focus on retention and customer engagement? We all know that getting repeat customers is cheaper and more profitable than winning new customers, so why do we place so little emphasis on keeping those customers happy, and why don’t we put more effort into turning them into contagious fans?
Have we figured out what we don’t do well, so we can outsource it or stop doing it altogether? If you are offering services you aren’t any good at, you may want to reconsider that. Doing more of what you’re best at and less of what creates issues and customer complaints is rarely a bad idea.
Written by
Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces reporting, research, and analysis across thirty verticals — communications, reputation, AI visibility, public affairs, media systems, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009.
Other news
See all
Editorial Team · 05/25/2026
Why the Best Digital Marketing in 2026 Feels Human Again
For the better part of the last decade, digital marketing has been defined by one word: efficiency. Marketers optimized everything. Audiences were segmented into increasingly granular cohorts. Creative was tested, iterated, and refined at scale. Entire strategies were built around performance dashboards—click-through rates, conversion rates, cost per acquisition. It was a golden age of precision. And yet, something got lost along the way. Scroll through any social platform today and you’ll encounter a paradox: marketing has never been more targeted, yet it has never felt more invisible. Ads are technically excellent, but emotionally vacant. Campaigns perform, but they rarely linger. Brands reach people, but they struggle to move them. This is the defining tension of digital marketing in 2026.
Editorial Team · 05/25/2026
The SAFE Banking Communications Playbook (Updated Q2 2026)
SAFE Banking has been "almost passing" for seven years. The communications stakes just got higher. Schedule III rescheduling raised institutional investor interest. The operators that build the right banking narrative now win citation share — whether SAFER passes or doesn't.
Editorial Team · 05/25/2026
280E Repeal Communications: What MSOs Should Be Saying Right Now
280E has crushed cannabis P&Ls for fifteen years. The April 23 Schedule III order ended it — for some operators. The MSOs that communicate the partial repeal with discipline win the post-rescheduling citation graph. The rest don't.
Never Miss a Headline
Daily PR headlines, weekly long-form analysis, and our proprietary research drops — straight to your inbox.