Choices

In business, we need to choose which clients we really want, and your choices will likely (hopefully) be different than the others. If you have foresight and good luck, your choices will match your passions and market trends. Then you hit the jackpot. (For years, contractors concerned about environmental sustainability worked in something of a wilderness, but a few persevered, achieved some success, and then achieved a breakthrough when the market caught up with their passion.)

What if your choices and passions fail to match the market? Do you compromise to find enough business to survive, or do you hold true to your values and priorities, and focus intensely and exclusively on what you really want to do? This is a good question.

These days, with the Internet and ability to find small niches over wide areas geographically, you may find you can create a viable business even though it may appear to be a minority interest. Design your plan, develop your scope and look far afield for the few people or organizations interested in your service -- you'll enjoy the experience and build a profitable business.

This of course is harder if your focus is local. The smaller the area geographically you wish to serve the wider your choices and the more you need to compromise your interests. Of course, if your interest is to serve a very small geographical area, you can do just that -- by becoming your community's resource source for referrals and information, you will relate to the much wider world of highly specialized participants.

The point here is simple: If you think you must compromise to make a living, you may be narrowing your choices more than you need. Think wide-angle and specialized, or narrow, and generalist, and you may find a much larger and more influential (and enjoyable) business than you might otherwise expect.