Focus: Less is More

by Jason Ogden | Jun 29, 2021

Focus. Everybody wants it or is working to get more of it in their lives. It’s an essential driver of the unending productivity gains and the “more is more” message in our culture. The secret to focus is that it’s all about saying “no” and “not right now” to everything but the one most important thing.  That is, was, and will always be true. What makes it additionally hard to focus in today’s world is the sheer volume of things trying to get our attention, all day every day. As that will no doubt continue, if not increase, in the future, the skills and discipline required to focus will become all the more important. Again, so far we’re only talking about personal focus.  

What about focus at the organizational level? Specifically what about focus when it comes to growing your business? Much like the world at large, the world of marketing is changing and expanding at hyperspeed. The sheer number of tools, tactics and platforms available to you is the highest it’s ever been. But not as high as it will be tomorrow. There are more things that you can do than you should do, and all of it is trying to get your attention.  

If doing everything all the time isn’t the answer to growth, what is? If I could only advise you to do one thing, I’d ask you to consider narrowing down your target audience to as small as possible. This allows you to go deep with that audience, get to know the companies and their employees. This helps you stay in touch with their content and their news. It allows you to focus (there’s that word again) your finite resources to maximum effect.  

But why?

YOUR BUSINESS WASN’T BUILT FOR EVERYONE AND EVERYONE CAN’T, WON’T AND SHOULDN’T BE A CUSTOMER. 

That’s not only ok, that’s a good thing. You’re limited by time, energy, resources and dollars to grow your business. You’d better do everything you can to make sure all of it is focused on people who you know, or at least think, could be a customer. Your total effort should be focused on the people your business is built for.  

Those people also look most like the people who are most interested in your products and services. They’re the ones most likely to work with you for a long time buying new services as well as rebuying existing ones. They’re the ones your business systems were designed for and who’ll ultimately make you more profitable. 

How else can I focus?

If a highly focused and targeted audience is the primary way to focus on growing your business, here are some additional things you can do to build focus over time:

1. Say no to waste of time metrics – clicks, page views, impressions.

2. Avoid being overly opportunistic and chasing whatever comes across your proverbial desk.

3. Be where your clients are, not just where lots of people are.

4. Do the most important thing first, and work on one thing at a time.

5. Build a list of future ideas to reach your audience and maintain it.  

I challenge you to take a look at your audience today and make sure it’s focused. Can you make it smaller? Can you go deeper? That’s where the magic happens.