Our real benefit to our organizations, companies, and even family and friends is the value we add to them. With increased value usually comes higher fees which is a good thing. It’s a good idea to specialize.
A few days ago, I was thinking about this on the drive to the airport. I passed a pickup truck towing a long trailer. The truck was customized and as I got closer, I saw the logo advertising this guy as a horse dentist.
Now I’m not a country boy so I had to just double check whether this was a legitimate field, and sure enough it is! It made me think about this whole notion of specialization.
I’m the first one to tell my job seeker clients to be as versatile as possible. It’s important to show your boss you can add value in a number of areas. I’m realizing though that as a business owner, it’s also just as important to be a specialist. You could be a veterinarian but maybe you choose to specialize in horses. Then, you decide to not just work on horses in general, but to focus on just horse dentistry. Then, you become the best horse dentist around. Seems like that’s what this guy did.
What can you do to identify and really promote your key skill/gift area? How can you build that skill and more importantly market it to others? It’s a matter of going from general to very specific. Maybe you can think about it. I’d be really interested in hearing what you come up with.