How do we know when we’re being too narrow and leaving money on the table, or too broad and diluting ourselves?

This post isn’t directly about writing, but it’s something I think about as someone who helps businesses figure out how to present themselves effectively.

You can specialize what you offer in order to strongly appeal to people who need that particular thing. This might exclude plenty of other business you could do.

But if you advertise everything you could do, you risk coming across as unfocused, and confuse your customers.

The dilemma gets summed up in dueling platitudes: “Jack of all trades, master of none” vs. “The one-trick pony gets shot first.”

Hamburgers and go-karts have nothing to do with each other. But a food court inside a go-kart facility makes sense, because hungry people are already there at lunch time. It’s a valuable add-on that makes sense in context.

The same people who like go-karts also need to do their laundry every now and then, but they’re unlikely to haul their dirty socks to a go-kart laundromat. Putting these things together just makes a bizarre combination.

We’ve all heard the importance of a snappy answer to the question, “So what do you do?”

It is possible to have a ridiculous combination but describe it concisely. “We cater birthday parties and fumigate for termites.”

You can explain it in a sentence, sure, but people immediately wonder what you’re smoking.

Other times, the combination isn’t so obviously out of whack, but the offerings have drifted to the point where they’re hard to describe. You find yourself walking people through how everything connects instead of just saying what you do.

“Well, we started as roofers, but we also do some tree trimming if the branches are near the roof, and we can clean your gutters or install new ones, and sometimes we help people with attic ventilation issues, and we’ve done a few deck repairs when it made sense…”

Rambling descriptions are a sign that things have become unfocused and confusing.

Of course there are mixed messages out there. For everyone who says “you’ve got to be laser-focused” there’s someone else who says, “I want to hire one person to do these five things for me.”

On Upwork, for example, I see people looking to hire one person who can edit, proofread, create the table of contents, design the cover, format the book for Kindle, and help with marketing.

Sure all these are related to making a book, but that’s a lot of unrelated skills. Clearly somebody wants a generalist. It might make you wonder if it’s worth branching out.

I say to that, look closer at who’s asking. Budget buyers who want a Swiss Army knife worker aren’t the same market as clients who value expertise and will pay for it.

The same goes for physical stores or businesses. If a couple people every now and then come in asking for something unrelated to your core business, it’s not worth muddying the waters to please them.

You may have well-meaning friends or family who tell you to combine your interests or skills. You love BBQ! You love ice cream! Why not do both?

The fact that you personally enjoy or are good at two things doesn’t mean they form a coherent business offering.

This advice is dangerous because when it comes from supportive people you know well, who may have also given you useful help or good other ideas in the past, it’s harder to ignore.