The 7 Habits of Highly Chilled Small Business owners
This is the second article in a monthly series on small Business owners I have met or worked with over the years who developed beautiful successful businesses.
Stories of successful real business owners
In 35 years of doing business and working with some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, I’ve learned a very important lesson: Success in small business starts by building great habits. I call these practices the “7 Highly Chilled Habits” and I find they’re best illustrated with the stories of real business owners who I happen to have had the pleasure of coaching.
The articles are based on my E-book, The 7 Habits of Highly Chilled Small Business Owners. All of my books and other resources are available for free here
Highly Chilled Habit #2:
Develop a Deep Niche
In order to build a Highly Chilled business, you must develop a niche that’s an inch wide and a mile deep.
P.S. You can read up on #1 here.
Be Realistic, Like Andrew
In 2004, I was working with Andrew. At some stage, we were discussing the challenges he was having with selling one of his IT services. I asked him to consider if there was enough of a market for this specific offering. Andrew said, “Good question. I might sell the world’s best buggy whips, but the market for buggy whips just isn’t that buoyant anymore.”
Andrew had a great insight. He ended up ditching this particular service and focusing his energy on two other core services. His business never looked back.
However, in today’s world, with the ever-increasing globalisation of commerce and traffic, it may actually be possible to build a Highly Chilled small business selling the best buggy whips in the world.
Better Yet: Be Specific, Like Sebastiaan
I have a brother named Sebastiaan who is doing just that. He is building a Highly Chilled small business selling services that are so niche, so narrowly defined, that there are probably less than 10 businesses in the entire world that offer what he offers – and even fewer that are as good as he is. This is his website.
What’s more, there is only a tiny number of customers for his product in most countries of the world.
Mining Deep Narrow Holes
Sebastiaan has developed a niche that’s only a tenth of an inch wide, but its depth goes right through to the core of the earth. He has even built special little shovels, a tenth of an inch wide, to ensure his business doesn’t stray outside that niche.
Sebastiaan’s team have arguably become the best “buggy whip makers” on the planet, and because of that, their customers come to him from all corners of the world to have their super-specialised projects completed. These people know they have only one shot at getting it 100% right and Sebastiaan’s business simply offers the best chance at that shot.
Highly Chilled business owners know they have to stand out from the crowd, so they develop a clearly defined niche, mine it as deep as it goes and intentionally develop an iron habit, never to stray outside it.
Your Homework (The Chilled Kind)
Here’s a short exercise you could carry out to start the process of making this habit your own.
Ask yourself: What am I really, really good at? What am I SO good at that I can be the best in my world at doing that one specific thing?
Practice Highly Chilled habit #2: Consider focusing your offer to your customers on “that thing”.
Are you a small business owner in need of a chill pill? Explore Highly Chilled Habit #3: Be on top of the numbers. Coming soon on this blog.
- The golden rule of marketing
- Finding your niche
- Ten simple strategies for making more money in your business
- The foundations of a Fun business
The post Highly chilled habit #2: Be Specific appeared first on New Perspectives.
This post first appeared on Small Business Blog - New Perspectives, please read the originial post: here
