The Cost of Doing Nothing (Why Stalled Programs Hurt Margins)

So many businesses I meet with have a half-built online course or e-learning program sitting somewhere on their digital shelf. It started with enthusiasm and vision—great ideas, a solid outline, maybe even some recorded content. Then something happened. The day-to-day pressures took over, and that project got pushed aside. Months later, it sits untouched. And yet, it’s quietly costing the business more than most people realize.

As a former accountant turned e-learning business expert, I’ve learned that doing nothing has a cost. It’s not just about the money you’ve already spent; it’s about the opportunities you’re losing every single day that your program isn’t live. In this post (and in the YouTube video linked here and podcast episode linked here), I want to unpack those two hidden costs—sunk cost and opportunity cost—and show you how launching your e-learning program can actually improve your margins, boost efficiency, and create new revenue streams.

Understanding Sunk Costs: The Money You’ve Already Lost (unless...)

When I studied to become a Certified Public Accountant at the University of Denver, one of the first concepts that truly stuck with me was sunk cost. It refers to money or time that has already been spent and cannot be recovered. The sting of that definition hits every entrepreneur at some point.

Maybe you hired a video team, purchased a learning management system, or spent weeks creating slides and scripts. Those are investments that have already been made. If your course never launches, those investments become sunk costs—money and time that will never generate a return.

What most people don’t realize is that the fix is simple. Once you finish your program and get it live, everything you’ve already spent transforms from a sunk cost into an asset. Suddenly, your investment has the potential to produce income, save time, and scale impact. You move from loss to leverage.

I’ve made my share of sunk cost mistakes in business—projects I believed in but never finished. The difference between regret and ROI often comes down to finishing what you started. That’s especially true for e-learning, where the work you’ve already done can continue creating value for years.

Turning Your E-Learning Program into an Asset

Once your e-learning program is live, it’s no longer a static expense; it’s a living asset. Whether you’re training employees or selling courses to clients, that digital product starts generating measurable value.

For internal training, e-learning captures the best knowledge from your top performers and transfers it to everyone else. This means your current employees become more efficient and effective, reducing the need for additional hires. In other words, you save money by maximizing the people you already have.

For external learning experiences, your program can become a scalable product that generates revenue without adding headcount. You can sell it globally, package it with your existing services, or offer it as part of a certification pathway.

Either way, that once-stalled project becomes an asset that strengthens your balance sheet. And the beautiful thing about assets is that they can be improved, upgraded, and reinvested into—rather than written off as losses.

The Hidden Weight of Opportunity Costs

While sunk costs represent money you’ve already lost, opportunity costs represent the profits you never earn because you haven’t acted. When I think about clients who stalled on launching their programs, I often imagine the learners waiting for what they have to offer. Every week of delay means people in the marketplace are missing out on their expertise, and the company is missing out on revenue.

Opportunity cost is invisible but powerful. It’s the uncollected income, the untrained employees, and the unrealized efficiency gains that never materialize because the program isn’t live. I’ve seen clients who could easily earn $100,000 to $1 million per year from their courses, depending on size and strategy. The only thing standing in their way was a lack of momentum.

By getting your program across the finish line, you start capturing that opportunity instead of letting it slip away. And the sooner you launch, the faster the compounding effects of learning, engagement, and revenue begin to work in your favor.

Applying the 80/20 Rule to Maximize ROI

One of the most transformative principles I’ve used in both accounting and business strategy is the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle. It states that 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of efforts. In business terms, that means 80 percent of your success probably comes from the top 20 percent of your people or programs.

When it comes to training, the numbers get even more fascinating. If 20 percent of your team creates 80 percent of your results, then 4 percent of your team (20 percent of 20) is responsible for 64 percent of your impact. The key is to capture what that top 4 percent knows and teach it to the rest.

That’s where an e-learning program becomes a multiplier. By systematizing the wisdom of your best people, you can elevate everyone else’s performance. The result is higher output, fewer hiring needs, and a stronger bottom line. You don’t need to work harder—you just need to scale what already works.

The ASAP Method: A Framework for Finishing Your eLearning Program Fast

Over the years, I’ve developed a process to help organizations overcome inertia and actually launch their programs. I call it the ASAP Method—because the goal is to get your e-learning program live as soon as possible. It stands for Audit, Simplify, Automate, and Profit.

Audit means looking at what you already have and clarifying your ROI goals. What problem will this program solve? How will it drive revenue or savings? Once you know that, it’s easier to cut the noise and focus your resources.

Simplify is about starting small. You don’t need to build an entire academy overnight. Choose the one program with the highest potential impact—either for your learners or your business—and finish that first. Once it’s generating results, you can reinvest and expand.

Automate uses technology to scale delivery. Many companies overspend on complex systems when they could launch for a few thousand dollars a year using platforms like LearnWorlds, Kajabi, or TalentLMS. Automation frees your team from repetitive work and ensures a seamless learner experience.

Profit is the reward stage. Once the system is live, every additional learner or employee trained costs less and adds more value. From there, reinvest the profits into improving content, adding new courses, or automating further touchpoints.

From Expense to Exponential Growth

When organizations adopt the ASAP Method, something remarkable happens. The sunk costs from months—or even years—of unfinished work suddenly turn into momentum. That half-built course becomes a working product. That working product starts generating revenue or savings. Then, those profits get reinvested into even greater efficiency and impact.

One of my clients, CoStar, has seen this transformation firsthand. They started with one core certification program that now drives the majority of their e-learning revenue. By focusing on what worked and applying automation and reinvestment, they’ve scaled global impact while saving six figures annually.

The truth is, every organization can do this. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small team or a S&P 500 company—if you have valuable knowledge and a stalled program, you’re sitting on a hidden asset. The only question is whether you’ll let it keep draining your margins or turn it into a profit engine.

Taking the First Step

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to finish your e-learning program, that moment is now. The longer you wait, the higher the opportunity cost climbs. Each week of delay is a week of lost learning, lost revenue, and lost potential.

Start small. Audit what you already have, identify your most impactful idea, and commit to launching it. You don’t need a massive budget or a huge team—just a clear process and a willingness to finish what you started.

When you do, you’ll discover what my clients experience time and again: finishing isn’t just about completing a project. It’s about reclaiming your investment, expanding your reach, and proving that doing nothing is the most expensive decision of all.