Do you have a product or service in your business that just isn’t doing what you want it to do? Do you feel like you're flogging it out to anyone who will listen, but not getting the response you need?

So the question is – how do you know when it’s time to give up the ghost or change course?

We’re talking pivoting, perfecting and pursuing the right things in your business and I’m going to let you in on a little secret – we’ve all been there!  Most of us have started out in one place, only to find that we have to evolve our offering, listen to our target audience and see what works and what doesn’t.

Now when I say “see what works and what doesn’t”, I don’ t just mean what works for your target audience. You also have to work out what YOU love to do and then find a way to make money doing it.

When I started The Connection Exchange I actually started both business and career coaching.  With 20 years in recruitment, HR and career mentoring it seemed like the obvious thing to do.  I had clients who enjoyed the service – but after doing it a few times I realised it wasn’t what I wanted.  Just a word of warning here – Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should!

When you find yourself in that situation, here are three questions that you can ask yourself:

1// Does this make me money?

Let's not beat around the bush. Unfortunately, businesses can't survive on love and fresh air so it has to be commercially viable.

• If it makes money but you don't love it and you feel like you're not selling your soul to the devil keeping it and it doesn’t specifically require you, then you could subcontract or outsource the task.
• If outsourcing isn't an option then you have to work out if it makes enough money for you to stick at it or if you need to start transitioning over to something else.
• Is the money it makes worthwhile?  What do I mean by that? Well does it take more effort than it's worth? Is the profit margin low but the personal and financial cost high?  Now don't get me wrong, things take time to build up but always assess.  Your accounting software is a great tool to keep track of what you're making and what you're spending so make sure you use what you have to keep track of what's working and what's not working in your business.

2// Do I enjoy this work?

When we start out in business it's great to try different things and sometimes the things that we thought we'd love just don't quite pan out. If there is something you're not enjoying, then is there anything you can do to change or evolve it into something that you enjoy more? Can you change the way you deliver it?  Can you tweak the content? Can you evolve it into something your clients will love more and you'll enjoying doing more is basically the key question here?  If the answer is no then it’s time to consider putting it out to pasture. Doing things you don't enjoy is a recipe for an unhappy business owner!

3// Is there something I can do to tweak what I have?

When I started the Exchanger Academy and membership I had this big vision of it being online with hundreds of women learning through the online portal and connecting through the  Facebook group.  As time went on I realised that I didn’t love the only online experience and it left me feeling empty.  When I spoke to my business coach about potentially letting it go – she asked me why I started it in the first place.

My answer was that I wanted to create a community. But that’s not what it had ended up doing.  So the question was, could I evolve or tweak it to be what I wanted?

If I could make it look like what I really wanted, then there would be online training and online connection but we would  also have a physical location. It would be close to home for me and a beautiful spot for the community to come together to press the flesh, connect, engage and support one another.  Once I realised what I wanted that service to actually do and look like, it made it so much easier to create a service and product that I loved, something that was financial viable for the business and that served my community.  [talk about the power of connecting in person?]

When you can figure out how you can serve your audience, while still remaining in your zone of genius – that’s your sweet spot.

Go through each of your products and services and see what aligns with your values, skills and what you want to be doing, then see if it’s making you money.  If you get a big fat NO against each of these check points then it’s simply time to ditch it.

If you have something you do love to do and it’s making you a bit of money then you need to ask yourself if you’re playing a big enough game to make it successful.

What does that mean?

It means – have you really put it out there with everything you’ve got?  There is no point having something that you love that you’re ‘kinda’ sharing with people!

So regularly go through what you’re doing and make sure it ticks all the boxes, so that you can spend your time focusing on what you love and what’s working, and get rid of what’s not!