Being a jack of all trades can be a big marketing mistake

It’s tempting when you’re starting out in business and struggling to find clients to try to do too many things.  It’s a natural reaction but it’s not going to do you any good.

For a start, ‘diversifying’ in panic is a sure-fire recipe for burnout because you become less effective every time you leap in a new direction.  You end up trying to work harder with each new idea but in reality, you just get progressively less productive – and further from whatever it was you thought you were good at when you created the business in the first place.

There’s also nothing to be gained from being seen as the ‘Jack of All Trades’ in your business community either.  In fact, the opposite is true because people will read your chameleon-like ability to re-invent yourself not as a strength but as a lack of focus, credibility or staying power. After all, why would you keep changing if you knew what you were doing and were any good at it?

From a marketing perspective, this is a big mistake.  Far from impress prospects, your tireless activity will just confuse the hell out of ‘em and erode their confidence in you.

If you’ve not long started your business and you find yourself in that scary place of being short of clients, you may feel a rising pressure to invent new products and services and take any work that comes your way whether it suits your business profile or not.

My advice?  Don’t. Better to put your business on hold and take a job so that when you next work on your business you’re not coming at it from a place of desperation.  You and your future clients will benefit in the long run.