Hi there,

We need to talk about TikTok.

Maybe you don't care about the potential TikTok ban. Maybe you never used the app anyway. Or maybe you want to see it get shutdown.

I'm not going to get into the political and ethical issues surrounding this.

The fact is, for many cottage food entrepreneurs, a TikTok shutdown would be a big blow.

Many people in our community have poured hundreds (or more) hours into creating content for TikTok. And some, like recent podcast guest Maci Reed, have formed a tight-knit community with other entrepreneurs on the platform.

When you work hard to build something, and it gets stripped away, it can be devastating. See Episode 57 or Episode 100 (@ 43:53 mark) or this newsletter for examples of this happening in different forms.

It's exactly why we have insurance. When we have something that we value greatly, we protect against the unexpected.

You obviously can't buy insurance for a social media account, so how do you protect against something like this? Two ways:

1) Diversification

Fortunately, many entrepreneurs already diversify. If TikTok gets shutdown, they'll focus more efforts on other platforms they've already built, like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

But many entrepreneurs focus all of their efforts on the one platform that works the best for them, like, say... Facebook. And I actually think even that is okay as long as the platform doesn't provide lead generation.

But if 80% of your leads or customers are coming through a non-owned platform like Facebook, then I'd say that's a pretty risky position to be in.

2) Owned Content

Which leads us to the second way to protect yourself: focus on things that you own and can control.

Even with social media, you should still own your content. I haven't focused on TikTok in a couple of years, but I have all of my TikTok videos saved on my own storage. If TikTok goes away, I can put those videos on another platform, if I want to.

And as you likely know, I'm a big fan of platforms that you own, like email, and eventually, an ecommerce website.

For as much time as you spend building your business, it's worthwhile to spend a little extra time to protect it.

I believe that they'll figure something out and TikTok won't go away entirely, but it serves as a good reminder that if you don't own it, you don't control it either.


Forraging ahead,

David

P.S. A quick reminder that my first monthly roundtable for CFO Pro members is today @ 11am PT. If you'd like direct feedback from me and other cottage food entrepreneurs, you can join for only $5/mo.