Ideas will come and go, what you need to concentrate on is keeping your end goal in mind.  A lot of businesses take a shotgun approach instead of staying laser focused and concentrating on the things that matter, the ideas that will bring them to the next level.

While pursuing every idea that comes about may work for some companies, it is not really plausible for small businesses.  You simply do not have the man power to pursue every idea.  People that pursue may different ideas are considered to take a shotgun approach, you take a shot and hope one sticks.  Business that focus on a core of products and services are like lasers, very precise instruments that cause mass amounts of penetration into their target market.

Shotguns just don’t work for small businesses

Staying focused can be harder than it seems.  It is so easy to run off on all those tangents.  The problem with this is you “do a little bit on a lot of things.”  Something I often see happen to people that take the shotgun approach is that they have a lot of projects started with none of them finished.  They are all in some phase, but not complete because they always move onto the next idea before completely finishing the first.

A lot of business owners fall into this trap simply because they feel they have to constantly innovate to stay ahead of the competition.  Well innovation is great, but your customers want a product or your great service, not a half finished idea.

It is very difficult to sell 5 products that are 70% complete while selling one product that has had all of your attention is a lot easier.  Find your one product and knock it out of the park.

Be a laser (because they are cool)

Besides being cool, taking a laser approach is often times the best way for a small business to increase efficiency and maximize profits.  By staying on task and following through with things to completion you will have more complete products, and therefore more to provide your customers.

While it may be difficult to change from a shotgun to a laser it will be worth it in the end.

What ideas are worth it?

Ahh the age old question, “how to prioritize?”  I will give you a hint.  Their is no right answer that encompasses all business models.  However their is one thing you can do to make sure you are never a shotgun again.

Know your goals.

By having a clear list of goals (try to keep this short) you will know what the next step is and what is going to drive your small business to the next level.  Your goals are like a roadmap for your success and should be looked at often.  Especially whenever you are thinking about going down a different path or pursuing a new idea.

Everytime you hit that fork in the road, a new idea comes up, or you realize you are going off on a tangent think to yourself “will this get me any closer to my goal?”

Where to from here?

So what are you waiting for!  Take a couple of minutes and think about what your goals really are.  Don’t stop there though, write them out on a piece of paper, somewhere permanent and if you ever question the next step just remember to ask yourself “how does this get me closer to my goal”.

I got up at 6:30 am this Monday morning like I have for the past 2.5 years.  I took a shower and ate breakfast.  I got dressed in my favorite pair of blue jeans and made myself some green tea.  At 7:30 am I walked over to my macbook air and turned it on.  I was now at work!

This was easily the best commute I have had in years!  No traffic, and it only took about 24 seconds.  I am OFFICIALLY working from home as a full time web designer.  I am the proud owner of my own business, Smart Internet Solutions (SMINSO).  Finally I am doing what I love!

I could not be more excited about this and where it is going.  I have been working online for 10 years now and have always wanted to work for myself.  I feel like my potential is limitless, and I can not wait to meet all of the great clients I will be working with.

What this means for my blog

My blog will benefit a lot from this as I will have more time to put into posting and creating great content.  I plan to post at least once a week, hopefully more.  If I am being completely honest a big reason for me to have a blog is to drive more potential customers to my site, so it will be of upmost importance for me to post on a regular basis.

What this means for my clients

More importantly is what this means for the awesome people I have worked with in the past and all the ones I will be working with in the future.

I will have a lot more time to put into projects.  No more phone calls after 6pm EST, unless of course that is a time that works for you.  No more only taking on small projects because I just was not sure how much time I would have each week while still working another job.

Most importantly I will be able to give you my best.  Working at a computer all day at my day job and then coming home and staring at more code was starting to catch up to me.  My creativity was slipping and I was almost starting to not enjoy what I was doing.  Now with 100% of my time going into my projects you will get the best ‘me’ possible.  Pretty awesome, right?!  Be sure to check out all the services I offer and let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Words of wisdom

For Christmas this year my beautiful wife got me a coffee mug.  It simply said “Do what you like.  Like what you do.”  These words could not be more true.  If you like what you do for work, you never actually work.  Find something you enjoy and do it!  If you don’t find some enjoyment in your life from the stuff you do every day then it is time to find something you like, and do it!

Since I am keeping the “hello world” post I had to decide what to talk about.  After much debate (within my own head) I have cleverly decided to use this as my intro to the blog.

Why a blog for sminso.com?

My websites main goal is to obtain awesome clients to build websites for (I hope it does more than this, but that is the nuts and bolts).  After working with many great clients and hearing from the majority of them that I should have a blog, I took their advice.

This is not my first attempt at the blogging rodeo, I have started and stopped, and delayed, and destroyed many blogs.  My biggest problem with all of them is that I always get bored with the topic and don’t enjoy writing posts anymore.  So for the sminso.com blog everything is fair game; from web design to technology news, I intend to touch on it all.  I will make every effort to bring it all back together and relate to the main theme of my site, smart internet solutions.  Even though it is my intention to always try and bring it back around to the main topic, I make no promises.

Why you should stick around

Even though my past efforts with blogging have been lame this one will not.  I promise.

Let me put it to you this way, either I will keep my promise or I will not.  However with all the great content I intend to put up on here, do you really want to risk not seeing it?

Goodbye, for now…

It’s not over till the fat lady sings… Ok its over now.

What are some ways you introduced your blog to the world?  Did you have a cool hello world post?  Leave a link in the comments if you want!