Well, it’s been a rough week for me with what’s going on at home, in business and the local news. I planned to cover the holidays more earnestly this week and next, and tackle some holiday specific topics, but many things have surfaced that have caused me to detour from this a little bit. I’ll come back to holiday chatter soon, at a more opportune time.

It hasn’t been long since I participated in the Instigator Blog’s goal setting exercise , where I discussed my plans to reach some business goals by the end of the year.

What’s happened here is that I have decided to rethink these goals a little bit prompted by TechCrunch just having announced the existence of a well funded software startup with the same objectives and concept as I have been formulating. With this new development and given my limited resources and funding, I may just have to rework my entrepreneurial priorities and figure out how to repackage and refocus my ideas in order to steer my business towards an alternative and more suitable direction. Yes, I’m shifting gears. And there goes my wondrous vision for helping out with the blogosphere.


So I’m now reflecting the plight of my business and asking myself some questions. Here were some points I mulled over today while thinking about the question: if you find yourself at a crossroads with your venture, what should you do?

My thoughts and things I’ve considered:

1. Reflect. Take a step back and determine if your idea is still worth pursuing or contains a well founded premise

2. Consider The Competition. Evaluate if there is room enough for more than one company in the same market space and if your company can share this space with competitors

3. Evaluate Your Offerings. Answer the question — are you first, better or unique in the space? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then your idea may have a shot

4. Salvage Your Idea. Look for alternative business angles for your idea and determine if you can address needs that your competitor does not offer: repackaging the idea may still make it work

5. Shift Gears Completely. Do you have more ideas where they came from? If so, and you’re still early in the process, you may want to regroup and consider alternative endeavors altogether

The online software space is very competitive, and is tough enough to make money from; after all, barriers to entry is quite low and starting up is relatively inexpensive, so sharing the market may be more challenging than with more traditional businesses. This is where business risk enters the picture and may cause many a budding venture to pull the plug early in the game. With many fingers in various pies, I am currently toying with the idea of doing an early exit with my current business in order to find better focus on other activities that may reap higher rewards. It’s a difficult call, but one that many an entrepreneur may have to face when business conditions dictate.

Should you cut your losses or go full steam ahead? Depends on how far ahead you are, how much money you’ve invested and how optimistic you are about your chances in the marketplace. Some may say I have wimped out and become intimidated by the competition, but I’d like to think that I’m being realistic, taking stock of my situation by deciding that I’d channel my energies somewhere else for now where I think I’ll have a more improved chance of success and where I’ll be most productive.

So far, I’m $5,000 in the hole.