Know when to quit

There is a time and place where you need to throw in the towel. Hopefully that time arrives before you’ve gone mad or lost the support of your family and friends.

Some would say the definition of insanity is to to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. For most that is also the definition of entrepreneurship.

What I am talking about here is not to quit being in business. But sometimes we start on a business plan, enter into a partnership, start a marketing campaign, and sometimes it just doesn’t work.

Still, we don’t want to hurt somebody else’s feelings. Or we think of how much we have already invested in it, or we don’t want to admit failure to our friends.

The question I get asked most is “when?”

The answer depends on the business. For most types of businesses a season or quarter is enough. Sometimes you will know to quit in days. Say you run an online ad campaign, you should know within 2 – 3 days whether it is producing the expected results or not.