Following story is 100% true.<\/p>\n
Only the niche and names have been changed to protect the guilty.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the scoop:<\/p>\n
Back in mid 2014 I got involved in a major project taking on part ownership in a company in a very rabid niche I\u2019ve sold in before. My two partners and I have our marketing down pat, and stand to have a lot of fun and adventures (the profitable kind).<\/p>\n
But, it\u2019s taken us almost 1.5 years to get started.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because we made a terrible mistake.<\/p>\n
A mistake I have made many times before.<\/p>\n
(What\u2019s that definition of insanity again\u2026?)<\/p>\n
And, a mistake that has cost us each over a year\u2019s worth of lost profits, lost sales, and lost time we can never reclaim.<\/p>\n
The mistake?<\/p>\n
Doing business with the wrong people.<\/p>\n
By wrong, I don\u2019t mean \u201cbad\u201d people.<\/p>\n
Nor do I mean incompetent people.<\/p>\n
These particular people we wanted to do business with are as honest (as far as we know, at least), professional, and sharp-as-a-whip smart as they come for the most part. No, by \u201cwrong\u201d I mean they simply didn\u2019t want the company to succeed as badly as we did.<\/p>\n
Thus, they got in their own way.<\/p>\n
Slowed progress up for months to get things \u201cperfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would not send us the content we needed in a timely manner.<\/p>\n
(If at all, and even then we had to almost nag \u2018em to do it.)<\/p>\n
And, basically, didn\u2019t care about it working as badly as us.<\/p>\n
Thus, we had to \u201cfire\u201d several talented people.<\/p>\n
And, cut the side of the business they would have been in charge of (and which would have made the company a lot more sales a lot more quickly) out altogether and change things around.<\/p>\n
All because we didn\u2019t \u201cvet\u201d the talent.<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t really need these guys.<\/p>\n
But, we thought we could change them and make them see the big picture.<\/p>\n
(Obviously that didn\u2019t work.)<\/p>\n
Anyway, again, that\u2019s almost 2 years we can\u2019t get back.<\/p>\n
And, it\u2019s an important lesson for anyone doing joint ventures.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also one of the 7 new \u201cEmail Players\u201d rules I talk about on the next exciting episode of \u201cThe Ben Settle Show\u201d podcast \u2014 streaming to a device near you tomorrow.<\/p>\n
These Email Players rules have become fan favorite episodes.<\/p>\n
And we wrap up the first 70 of them tomorrow.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, listen to prior shows here:<\/p>\n