It's one of the biggest startup mistakes: canceling cash flows before a new idea proves it can generate more and better cash flows.

It's also a mistake many established businesses make.

Never abandon your cash cow for a new, tempting opportunity.

First, figure out, as a small project, whether the flirtatious opportunity has any cash potential.

If not, abandon it. This is likely the case for 95% of all business ideas. They're just not right at the time they appear in your specific environment. What works for one might not work for another. A standard business problem.

For the remaining 5%, when they start bringing in a few bucks, try to scale them first.

This will quickly weed out most of the cash-flowing ideas. Many are lucky shots that don't create stable cash streams.

From the remaining few, select those with a better margin and better future growth potential than your current cash cow.

Once you've identified such an idea, build and scale it, while starting all over again at square one with testing new ideas.

Even the best cash cow will stop delivering one day...