Advertising
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Focus?
Sometimes business owners spend too much time and effort on one or more aspects of their business to the point that it negatively impacts sales and money making.
What if a business owner spends most of his day responding to customer requests and emails?
What if a business owner spends all of his time planning and creating his next super product?
What if the owner loves writing and does little else? He can fill his site with great content . . . but is that enough to turn a business into a profitable venture?
I raise the question about too much focus because it really is an obstacle to overcome for many solo online business owners. Of course, a certain amount of focus is important for every area and task necessary for the owner. He must focus on his audience and their desires, upon his products and their value, upon his traffic and both its quantity and quality. He must focus on his content, on his sales offers, and on his product sales and delivery system.
But the real truth is that many business owners never quite understand that a large part of their business is marketing. Too much focus in other areas of their business may leave little time for niche marketing . . . and that can spell disaster for the solo business owner.
Many aspects of marketing are considered “unpleasant tasks” by a lot of business owners. They are sticking points because the owner may not understand how to best execute them or even how to hire them out to other people for execution.
But let’s face it . . . selling products and services online is all about marketing your offers. If you want to make money, you must sell things and do it over and over again. The most profitable marketers online have typically implemented selling “systems” that automate many of the important tasks. They have tested and tracked their marketing campaigns so they know which versions or alternatives in their selling system produces the greatest profit with the least amount of personal effort.
One of the challenges with online marketing is the fact that there are so many ways to do it! There are so many venues for presenting your offers. There are so many different sources of niche traffic. There are so many various platforms and systems for accomplishing emailing, and web site building, and conducting financial transactions. There are many, many alternative ways to do graphics, and product creation, and customer service.
Sometimes online business owners get totally bogged down with all the choices available to them when it comes to conducting or executing their business. In addition, we have already mentioned that many owners unintentionally get sidetracked with one or more particular aspects of business operation.
Perfectionists are the worst at balancing focus with proper attention to details. I should know . . . I am mostly a perfectionist myself which can be a real curse for an online business owner. So often it is difficult for a perfectionist to know when too much focus or effort is going into one area of the business at the detriment to other important aspects. We perfectionists tend to “tinker” and modify and change and optimize every thing we start. We have a hard time “letting go” and finishing our attention to the thing we’re doing if we don’t feel it’s our best effort.
At times, good enough will just have to do! Business owners learn, usually over time and with some sad experience, that too much focus in one or more areas of their business will hurt their bottom line!
My advice for today is that if you are an online business owner, or aspire to become one, learn to put your marketing of products, services, and your brand in it’s proper place. Be sure you don’t focus too much time and effort on other aspects of your business so that you don’t have time or the resources to emphasize a robust marketing plan. You have to sell things if you want to make money online!
To your online success,
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com