Entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs because they are able to bring their ingenuity to the table. But their greatest asset becomes their greatest obstacle when they attempt to juggle too many ideas at one time. The people who are able to turn great ideas into tangible successes have one commonality: the ability to focus on a single goal.
You should never start a business without understanding what makes you uniquely qualified. Whether it’s industry connections, technological innovation, or sheer expertise, you need a certain something that puts you ahead of the mark. If you don’t know what that is, it’s not only a suggestion but rather an imperative that you figure it out. If you don’t, you might as well admit defeat or keep looking for your holy grail.
A superficial look at the greats, like Google or Apple, might suggest that offering a variety of skills and services is the key to industry domination. But before they could offer the plethora of products and services we see today, they had to earn consumer trust. Apple started with the simple dream of the personal computer. Google started by offering a search engine when the search engine wasn’t cool. By finding a small thing people needed and doing that small thing well, they became the industry greats we see today.
Unlike the success of Google and Apple, or perhaps as a result of it, we now have a super-highway of social media to help us sift through a sea of “industry experts” to find those companies that give us what we really need. This means to be the guy/girl everyone wants to know, you have to let them know what you’re doing. You become an “expert” by writing about, talking about, and most importantly SHARING what you know. Now more than ever, new business owners can position themselves as industry leaders. Through sheer communication and follow-through, your customers will see you as an invaluable asset to meet their needs. Then you can just sit back and let your reputation do the talking.
Being a jack-of-all-trades might have been necessary in pioneer times, but it is useless in 2014. The truth is if you have an entrepreneurial gene then you’re already an expert at something. So, use what you know. Do one thing and do it better than anyone else. Then share it with the world.