Its almost a given that at any time in the United States and around the world some form of Law and Order can be seen on television. The shows creators have done a tremendous job of franchising this brand. So what can we, as entrepreneurs and small business owners, learn from this example? Once we establish ourselves in the marketplace for our first line of business, we should not be afraid of branching out.

Just look at the Law and Order model. The creators waited until they were a mainstay in viewers weekly television fix. Once they were established they brought out SVU. Then of course came Criminal Intent, the now defunct Trial By Jury and the latest installment Conviction.

Lets see how this could apply in the real world. Ill use my business as an example because Im very familiar with it! My main focus is on my virtual assistant business. I have spent a lot of time promoting it, tweaking my website, writing articles such as this one, joining virtual assistant associations and hanging out in various small business forums. Now, I have had very excellent results and seen nice profits and growth.

However, I am now at a point where promotion of that site is not a full time endeavor. So having the type A personality, being a bit obsessed with work like most small business owners I know, I was looking for additional places to invest my time and effort. The first step for me was to think of ways to use what Im already doing to further grow my empire(well, maybe not quite, but I like to think big!)

My first new venture or as I like to call it my SVU, was starting my own article directory. It was a very natural lateral move for me as article marketing is one of my main marketing tools. I understand how important article marketing is to many online entrepreneurs. After all its a free way to get your name out there, highlight your talent and build incoming links. So, I did a lot of research and decided that it was something I would be able to do successfully. I set to work and within a few weeks had my site up and running. Im not going to lie to you; Im not running to the bank with thousands in extra income from it. I am, however, making a nice little supplemental income via Adsense and other advertising throughout the site.

So that was a few months ago and so here I am again. I am by no means spending my time solely on the promotion of my virtual assistant site and the article directory. I have been quite busy with my virtual assistant duties, but I still have that need to always be cultivating new things.

I recently began thinking of what I could do next. Ill be honest here. I read all the same articles, websites and all the hype of building site after site just disgustingly loaded with keywords to generate Adsense income. I seriously considered these options. Now, I am not an expert on these matters, so that very well may work for some people. Its just not something that I could get excited about. I felt like I needed to find something that I really enjoyed.

I did go ahead and use Wordtracker and other keyword research tools. I started brainstorming. What do I want to do? What do I like doing? And wouldnt you know that one of the top keywords on all those lists fit the bill! Horses. I was so excited to see that word there. I have been riding horses since the time I could walk and am constantly reading anything new about riding, showing, training, horse care, etc.

Enter my new horse information site or in keeping with my premise, my Criminal Intent. Now I know this doesnt exactly follow the Law and Order doctrine but bear with me. The success of most online business is based on ability, talent, salesmanship, promotion AND passion. In any business, we must be passionate about what were doing, or we will quickly burn out. In my case, Ive taken my hobby and put it to work for me. And although the site is young, its quickly proving to be another nice supplemental income.

All of us need to be prepared for some of our ventures to fail, case in point, Trial By Jury. Although Ive yet to have my own Trial By Jury, I have many ideas of future projects and am realistic. I know that not everything will work, but the main thing is to keep going.

I really believe that in business we must look at those who have been successful, in any field, and learn and apply what we can from their technique. There is a lot to learn from simply being observant of our environment, even watching TV! So thank you very much to Dick Wolf and all those that have modeled the Law and Order principles so well.