Start Small and Focused

One of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way…several times…has to do with taking focused baby steps.  When just starting out with a new business or project, we’re tempted to “do it all”, because we finally have the freedom to do so.  We have so many good ideas and we want to compete in the marketplace.  So we start multiple product lines or multiple projects simultaneously, hoping to appear bigger, better, faster, more interesting than the next guy.

Here’s the challenge with that.  Time and money.  We only have so much of each.  When we choose to “do it all”, we spread ourselves and our resources too thin.  And sometimes we risk confusing the very customers we’re trying to woo.  Here’s an example.  Perhaps your passion is making cupcakes but you think cupcakes alone may not draw the revenue you need to sustain your business.  So you decide to sell brownies and coffee drinks, as well.  Now instead of focusing on the one thing at which you’re truly gifted…making cupcakes, now you’re forced to spend time and energy and resources either getting up to speed on making brownies and coffee drinks or finding the right vendor to whom to outsource these products.  Instead of the best cupcake-maker in town, you’ve now established yourself as another middle-of-the-road coffee shop that happens to have some good cupcakes.  See how the message gets lost?

As entrepreneurs, part of our challenge in staying focused has to do with our desire to be doing something new and novel.  We are easily bored and constantly need a challenge and a change of scenery.  Sometimes we forget what we do best and forget that there are plenty of people out there that haven’t been introduced to our product or service yet.  Of course we need to remain challenged, but the trick is to grow and expand and experiment around a central focus point to ensure our message stays strong.  We need to be known as the “expert” in a particular area, be it cupcakes or social marketing tools.

A better strategy is to start small and focused.  Introduce a product and give it a solid foundation.  Figure out what works with your customers.  Make sure you know who your best customers are.  Then take the learnings from that strategy, tweak it to make it better and then roll out the next product using the same steps.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Take a moment today and put yourself in the place of your customers.  Do they know what to expect from you?  That new project you’re considering…is it in line with who you are to your valued customers?  Your blog postings, your Tweets, your Facebook postings…are they working to solidify your message?  To communicate who you are and what you believe?  Or might they be confusing to a customer?