A key decision of any business is what you should do and more importantly what you should not do.
If you don’t consider both of these questions from time to time, you’ll wind up taking on any business that comes through the door. This leads to a cycle of making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. And it all happens because you don’t have the criteria in place to pick high value work.
There’s always plenty of business that comes through the door, lined up around the block, that’s barely profitable at best. In many cases you’ll be at a deficit for taking it on. These are markets that barely exist at best.
If you want to advance a business you have to stop serving markets that barely exist. Leave those to someone else, or better yet, nobody. Focus on markets that comfortably exist with healthy profit margins for everyone because they create immense value for the customer.