too many irons in the fire

When I first started my business, I had about a zillion ideas for making money. I thought a few of them might take off and become my sole bread winners, but that never happened. Instead, I've been working on multiple streams of income. Although I'm sure it would be easier to track the progress and success of one or two sources of income, I must admit that I feel more comfortable knowing that my income is "diversified" - just like my 401k. You know the old saying about having all of one's eggs in one basket. I don't see why income should be any different. This explains why layoffs at corporate jobs are so stressful. How could you not be stressed about the possibility of losing your primary source of income?

Of course, now that I have been self-employed for well over a year, I've had some time to evaluate all of the different projects that I have been working on and I am going to start making some informed decisions about which irons in the fire can be taken out to cool. My first approach was to evaluate the return on my investment. Ventures that require more time and attention but result in less income need to be dropped. Anything that involves "high maintenance" clientèle is also a target for elimination. I don't want need (or want) the stress.

The other thing that I really need to work on is trying not to reinvent the wheel so often. As a web designer, this comes into play whenever I need to launch a new site with user account functionality. At first, I was leery and a bit elitist about my attitude towards web development. Where I once felt that the only worthwhile web development was custom development, my experience with content management systems like Drupal have changed my perception quite a bit. After dealing with it for half a dozen different websites, I now know how to use Drupal as a tool and make it work for my needs. In a nutshell, I can make Drupal-based websites that don't look like Drupal-based websites. And it saves me a TON of time and effort when compared to custom programming.

There's no reason why anyone out there can't take this same approach with their job, regardless of what you do. First off, eliminate anything with a poor return on investment. The obvious exceptions are tasks and job positions that give you much enjoyment. Weigh in job enjoyment heavily, as it is worth its weight in gold (and when compared to the US dollar's current value, that makes it worth even more). Then do what you can to eliminate stress. It isn't worth your time (or the time it could take off of your life - stress kills, after all). Outsource where you can. And lastly, evaluate third party resources and quit trying to reinvent the wheel when it doesn't make sense. Only customize when absolutely necessary and when it will pay off handsomely.