After yesterday’s post from J. F. Straw, I ‘d would like to share with readers a discussion I was having with a friend on this very topic:

Steve Sutherland, the "The Start-Up Expert" wrote:

I hear that all the time on WarriorForum – stick with one thing, choose one business model and persevere until you succeed. Unfortunately my business model involves content creation, copywriting, website development, article marketing, other SEO techniques and pretty soon email marketing etc! (Hardly getting good at one thing).

And in the same breath and email:

Sales are up anyway …!

So he was doing something right, for sure! However, I was turning this over in my own mind when I wrote my reply to him, and also to you:

I don’t think they mean get good at one (discrete) task, I can’t see how success could be based on one task, ONLY. I think they simply mean one business (this may involve multiple tasks) but keeping the focus on what YOU are good at. It doesn’t mean you have to be a MASTER of all trades! Obviously, you have to be reasonable at all of them and in some tasks you may have to be even better.

For example, when you buy a car, you could choose a Ferrari that excels in speed and acceleration. But the repair bills for simple things like oil changes are huge, AND, you won’t be able to drive it on less than standard roads. So you look for something more reasonable, say a Toyota. Toyota excels in producing great cars at affordable prices, but NONE of them will race as fast as that first car you looked at. However, that is their focus. And their customers like that. Toyotas are successful, not because they everything perfect, but because they do well in most important areas: engine capability, comfort, economy, efficiency, pricing, and repair service. They may not be the best, fastest, cheapest, MOST reliable, most comfortable, most powerful… but they are certainly successful. I think that’s the point.

I think the focus is what you said earlier: "The Start a Business Niche Expert". You’ve found a number of useful and sellable products, developed a marketing approach and put it into action more than 8 times already. Even better, you’re getting great feedback on sales/visitors on what sells, what is profitable, what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t. That is YOUR thing, isn’t it?

Even as a blogger, you have to know a bunch of skills, in some ways similar to Steve’s skill set, but you also have to know how to use WordPress, LiveWriter, and a whole bunch of skills. Being even a moderately successful blogger requires development of more than one skill, even though you may excel at one particular skill or subset of skills. Without some grasp of other skills, you will not achieve your aims.

What do you say, gentle readers?