This will be a short post, because what I have to say is pretty straightforward.
I have finally come to the conclusion that, although I am really damn good at lots of different things, the time has come to SPECIALIZE. Yes, that dreaded word, the one that means saying ‘no’ to some things and saying ‘yes’ to the Right Things.
(And what this means is that sometimes, you say no for now to things that might be Right Things later.)
My Right Things
So, in the interests of being really awesome at a few things, here are the things I love doing, that I would do for free if it weren’t for the fact that my electric bills can’t be paid in warm fuzzies, and that I would love more than anything to do for you:
Websites, logos, and Twitter backgrounds.
And also, very very soon, coaching for creative rockstars like you. Except it might not be called coaching, I haven’t decided yet.
This doesn’t mean that I won’t ever ever do the other things on my current Services page; I can still do them and do them in an awesome way. And I will still offer them, but one of my lovely Ninjas will do it for you instead.
So. It’s your turn. What are your Right Things? What do you love?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I have recently discovered that I have superpowers in creating USPs (unique selling propositions) and I’ve been testing it out lately on my entrepreneur friends to great success. If you know of anyone that needs help in articulating what they do best, the problem they solve, and how they do it, in the least amount of words, I’d be happy to help them.
I’ve been building up the same type of decision in the past few months. I’ve moved away from programming/development and jumped into product management, and overall agile development management, it was a tough turn around, and I have a super-long road to run, but was the Right Thing for me.
It’s funny how you try hard to focus in several things and wind up moving slowly on all of them. And then, when you decide to take only one, is like you are bombarded with knowledge and new things all the time – it’s really exciting.
Lol…this is great. I’m actually still trying to hear my calling…I think it might just be random shuffling about in my bedroom slippers while listening to Tame Impala. But seriously, it’s fantastic that you are really damn good at more than one thing already, and your desire to keep growing tells me one thing:
This girl has a long way to go.
peace pickles and rugolach
I’m in the middle of doing this myself, will be focusing on writing and “blog publishing,” and WP plugin work. Letting everything else go. Bummer.
I do see a lot of micro-niches opening up as web publishing grows in importance. For example, I now know some who specializes in Tumblr themes. Which is both crazy and cool!
Awesome redesign! I’m very impressed! :)
I had to come to that crossroads a while back as well. I wanted to do everything, but I realized soon that there were a few things that I just could not do well. I had to axe anything dealing with logos and print type media. I also had to axe complex graphic work. I found that it sucked the life and energy out of me (and ultimately made my business unprofitable).
I narrowed it down to installing WordPress, developing WP/Thesis and doing consulting. Cutting out the junk has vastly improved my profitability, performance and satisfaction. Pruning is generally a good thing to do. :)