What Business Do You Want To Be In

When considering business opportunities, there’s a basic question few people seem to ask themselves that affects everything in the business.

What business do you want to be in?

If you’re not clear about what business you want to be in, it’s easy to get sidetracked into associated businesses. I’m fortunate enough to do a lot of different things in my business, but with each business track, I know what business I’m in.

For example, I do social media management for authors, museums, companies, etc. Recently a friend asked me to convince her boss it was important to have a Facebook page. I politely declined, because that’s not the business I’m in.

I’m in the business of helping people who already understand why social media is important to use it. It’s a very different business. I don’t want to spend my time trying to convince people why they should be doing it with the hopes they’ll eventually hire me to do it. Why would I bother? Plentiful potential clients already exist. I’m not in the business of creating more potential clients. I’m in the business of serving the ones who are interested in using these tools.

You can argue that’s callous. It’s not. It’s just business. Convincing people is the business someone else wants to be in. When you work for yourself, all you have to sell are your time and your expertise. I don’t want to waste my time on things that are not the business I’m in.

That’s not to say I never speak about social media. I do. In fact, I love to do that. But, I don’t do it to create potential clients. I do it to serve another business I’m in – public speaking.

Being clear about what business you’re in is critical to moving forward effectively. Once you are clear, it’s easy to make decisions about what fits into your business model and what doesn’t. You’ll not waste your time on things that aren’t about the business you want to be in.