Pick one.

Anyone, but pick one.

I learned from our cousins the “creatives” that my biggest obstacle to build a profitable service business lays in “my creativity” what ??

Entrepreneurial engineers are a form of creative entrepreneurs.

We are so “curious” we can’t help but when facing several doors, we want to open every single one of them. It’s almost compulsive.

Which curious mind can live with themselves leaving one stone unturned ?

We proud ourselves into being “solution-oriented”, “creative problem solvers”.

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But what if this becomes a liability when we are business owner ?

You know what I mean : “We are present in many industries : aerospace, automotive, banking, energy … and oil & gas” 🫣

Look, don’t get me wrong.

If you’re $50m+ business it’s likely legitimate to expand.

If you’re $5m-$50m grey area, it depends.

But under $5m : pick one.

We thrive in novelty, solving new problems, working with different industries.

Different experiences, industries and domain can only be good right ?

In our early business stages it can be harmful.

On our road to the first million in revenue, we say “yes” to almost everything, then comes a time where we need to (learn) build the courage to say “no”.

“No” as “I am not going to open the other doors. I am going to pick one, and go as far as I can within that door”.

You know what happens then ?

Another choice of doors (opportunities), then we pick one again. Then again, and again.

Before we know it, we built DEPTH, in our expertise, customer want to hire us for the undeniable expertise we’ve built in that specific focus/niche. And are willing to pay premium, above market rate.

What happens to the creative one who gets stuck opening every doors ?

A few possibilities

🔴 Worse case scenario : they keep opening doors, never get recognised for what they are expert in, keep confusing their prospects, keep trying to please everyone, stretch their teams across different verticals, lose steam and eventually die slowly or if in a low-cost environment may stay a zombie business 🧟‍♂️ (neither dead or alive)

🟢 Best case scenario : They decide to focus their positioning on a horizontal aspect their positioning (not based on industry) like psychometric, demographic, company size, position… [ex: only opening wooden doors] accept it might never become as lucrative as picking a vertical. But at least they might build a boutique business out of it, profitable if it stays, intentionally <8-12 people but tightly focused.

For more read : The Business of Expertise by David C. Baker

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