Do you offer a range of services for your customers?
Do you know which ones are more profitable and key for your business to grow?
Do you focus and specialise in these profitable services?
If you answered yes to the second and third questions, grab your beverage of choice and jump to the comments to share your thoughts.
If not then read on.
Being focused on the most important areas of your business is necessary if you want to grow profitably.
You may not think this is part of marketing your brand, however it is and it deals with your marketing strategy.
A focused marketing strategy keeps you on the track so that is good for your business and your customers.
Speciality
If you focus on your specialty it can open up a number of opportunities:
- You become known for the expertise that will set you apart from others
- You can make it or the process unique to your business
- You can reduce costs by refining the process and make more profit
- You can command a higher price by being a specialist
Having a specialty by itself is not enough as you need to make sure it is profitable for your business as well.
Is There Demand?
If you offer a range of services you will find some are more in demand than others and are more profitable.
There needs to be enough demand by customers to ensure your speciality is profitable. Ideally this demand is on a regular basis so you get repeat business.
You also need to make sure there are sufficient customers who want this type of service.
Do You Have To Tailor?
A question around the process sometimes asked is the customers like you to tailor your services.
That may be true but is it good for your business?
If you think of your service as a product it doesn’t change depending on each customer.
Creating a standard process and make it unique means you can set a price and charge upfront or in a progressive way as you deliver.
Once you have a process to deliver the service it is then a lot easier to finetune it and make it even more valuable and profitable for your business over time.
If you are still unsure about whether to specialise ask yourself a question as a customer, which would you prefer?
A specialist who produces one thing extremely well or a generalist who does an okay job?
As more businesses open and competition increases specialising just might be the profitable path to consider.
What do you think? Have you ever looked at specialising?
Good article and common sense Susan. When you specialize the list you wrote very much apply.
However you have to be a bit flexible and tailor make solutions. For instance when I was running a press & communications agency we sometimes included a feature on EuroNews as an extra that was appreciated. The feature closed the deals that would otherwise not have been made.
Catarina Alexon recently posted..Do you agree with Merkel that it will take years to solve the Euro crisis?
Hi Catarina,
Was that a promotion or a new service? The only thing about tailor solutions is it takes resources away from what is your focus don’t you think?
Profitable Business Through Specialisation | M4B Marketing…
Do you know which of your services are more profitable and key for your business to grow? Do you focus and specialise in these profitable services? If you answered yes grab your beverage of choice and jump to the comments to share your thoughts. If not…
I always offered graphic design, but in 2010 I started specializing in branding and illustration. Illustration being a skill I never shed a light on. Don’t ask me why. I was probably going through an artist moment where you don’t feel good enough. So I keep my services open to all kinds of design needs, but I specialize in branding because, as you know, more and more entrepreneurs are realizing how important a brand is. I do agree that some services are more popular than others, and so you should open yourself up to all kinds of business. The only downfall of that is that you’ll never master one thing, and as you mentioned, you might end up doing just an okay job.
Dennis Salvatier recently posted..Design Inspiration Should Be Shared
Hi Dennis,
Your specialisations shines through as your work is quality and I especially like your illustrations.
Good to see your specialisation is working well for your business.
Susan Oakes recently posted..Profitable Business Through Specialisation
After a long career in management positions heading up marketing communications at major companies and managing major accounts at agencies, I re-branded myself as a business writer. Over the last couple of years I saw the market was moving to social media so I’ve narrowed my niche to social media writing. This is producing good results. The key is leaving yourself open to the possibilities and continually refining your offerings. This doesn’t mean you can’t do other writing. For some reason, I’ve also been asked to write or edit the resumes of senior corporate executives. I do it well and it certainly isn’t social media writing, but it’s another niche I’m happy to fill!
Jeannette Paladino recently posted..Letting Our Imagination Take Us Beyond Our Limits
Hi Jeanette,
It is great you saw the opportunity and it working well for you. You also make a good point about refining your offerings as one advantage small businesses have is speed and flexibility.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Very good common sense!
I like your last point; see it through the customer’s eyes. Indeed, that is how we should see everything we do.
I found that writing about general social media practices was soooo broad, I couldn’t get a handle on it. I had writer’s block for weeks because I couldn’t get myself to narrow down enough information for a singe blogpost.
Once I started specializing in social media for music and arts organizations I could write again, because I had someone to write for specifically. I’ve been getting some great feedback because of that choice.
Great post! Thanks!
Rachel Poling recently posted..Comment on 5 Ways to Make Your Concerts Market for You by Rachel Ann Poling
Hi Rachel,
You bring up a good point about being general as making it harder. Thanks for sharing your example regarding your specialisation and they sound like great segments.
Pretty good post. I just came across your site and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed
reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be coming back and I hope you post again soon.
karen black recently posted..Credit Card Fraud: Don’t Be a Victim