Specialization as a Success Factor for Founders and Self-Employed People Online

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Specialization as a Success Factor for Founders and Self-Employed People Online - One of the most important decisions as a founder concern determining what services to offer.

Unfortunately, especially in the difficult early days, many tend to accept any order if it brings money.

In the following, you will find out what problems this approach entails in the long run and what you should do instead.

Specialization as a Success Factor for Founders and Self-Employed People Online

The "Yes, I Do That Too" Syndrome

When I started my own business almost 10 years ago, I was naturally looking for customers. I worked as a web designer and it wasn't easy to get enough customers here in the country.

The thought “I can't live on that alone, I still have to offer B, C, and D” came up to me very quickly at the time and I still see this with many founders today. It is not for nothing that you often hear slogans such as “Everything to do with the house”, “We do all the work that comes up in the office” or “Cleaning, building, heart surgery”.

Well, I haven't seen the last example like this before, but many are on the way there. And when you see how cheap competitors are flooding the market in many industries, you can guess the problems that this brings with it, even for yourself.

Problems of "Doing Everything"

In the long run, it is not a good idea to offer too many services, as this creates some problems.

The wider your offer,

The greater the competition against which one has to survive.
The less one is perceived as an expert who delivers quality.
The more one gets involved in a price war with the competition.
The more overhead in terms of time and costs for administrative tasks one has.
The more difficult it is to develop efficient routines and workflows.

With this approach, you make yourself arbitrary and comparable and can do a lot, but nothing well. At least in the eyes of the potential customers, who then take advantage of it and demand dumping prices.

Specialization vs General Store

Not that we get ourselves wrong, as an entrepreneur you should always be on the lookout for new markets. The so-called blue oceans, i.e. new markets where there is still no competition, are of course best. There the demand is higher than the supply. But other markets with existing competition can also be lucrative.

Unfortunately, most companies enter markets that are already more than saturated. It is simply proceeded according to the motto: “I have to go where there are many because it seems to be worthwhile”.

This is of course the wrong approach and will not lead to hoped-for success in the medium term. Those who made a specialized will have to fight much less competitive, deliver better quality and can demand mainly due to higher prices.

At the beginning of my self-employment, I also did more than I originally wanted. In addition to the actual web design, I also offered computer services and took on graphic design assignments. That generated more income in the short term, but I still noticed that it couldn't go on like this in the long run.

On the one hand, I sometimes didn't enjoy these additional services and, of course, I could only get lower prices compared to a specialist. At the latest when my web design business grew, I consciously began to forego such assignments. But I know that saying no is not easy.

Learn to Say No

I used to experience cheap competition myself. There will always be customers who just look at the price. As an entrepreneur, you have to learn to say no, which (and I speak from my own experience) is sometimes very difficult.

When I started my own business in 2006, my answer to the question "Do you also do XYZ?" most of the time was yes. This may be necessary, especially at the beginning, as you hardly have any orders and above all you need references.

Gradually I had more and more ideas for services and projects and at some point, I no longer knew what to do first. At that point I sat down and thought carefully:

Which of your services are you best at?
What does good customer potential and relatively little competition offer?
With which services can you retain your customers in the long term and earn regular income from them?
What do you enjoy most about spending up to 12 hours a day?

Of course, I asked myself more questions and, as a conclusion, bundled a few services and thus actively approached customers. That worked well and I supported it with various instruments (extensive range, personal contact, specialized advertising material, USP ...).

At that time I still accepted other services, but charged relatively high prices for them, did not actively advertise them, and only did this for existing and good customers.

Specialization in the Internet

Over the years I have implemented my internet projects, like this blog here or my niche websites. Gradually, the total income has increased, but so has the effort. So there came a few years ago when I had to ask myself again where the journey should go in the future.

I then decided to stop accepting customer orders and to concentrate fully on my blogs and websites. Sure, that wasn't an easy step either, but to be able to produce really good results, I needed to concentrate on one thing.

That's why I'm such a big fan of focused websites and blogs that deal with just one topic, among other things. Of course, nothing speaks against a hobby blog that revolves around all sorts of topics. But if you want to blog or run a website professionally, you should find a focus on content and specialize.

This also means that you are perceived more as an expert on the Internet and, for example, your monetization options improve.

Conclusion

Both as a service and with your Internet projects, it is highly recommended to specialize. You can develop more efficient routines, get better results, and make more money.

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