Trying to be all things to all people is not your smartest move. Here’s what you should do instead.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When we talk about the “Goldilocks Syndrome,” we’re referring of course to the familiar fairy tale in which the little girl Goldilocks breaks into the home of the three bears and decides that one bowl of porridge is too hot, another too cold and the final one just right.
This same burden often faces startup service firms. They focus either too narrowly on product offerings or, conversely, too broadly, trying to be all things to all people. Yet, finding the mix and amount that is “just right” is the challenge.
It’s completely understandable why companies, especially startups, suffer from this syndrome. When you’re new, you need revenue. And you’re willing to get it from almost any source. That’s why it’s difficult to turn down clients that don’t fit your business model. But, expanding your services too much may dilute your brand or lead to a condition we learned the hard way — brand schizophrenia.
We ourselves fell into the Goldilocks trap when we first started our consulting business. Our messaging was completely unfocused and suffered from brand schizophrenia. We would tell people we worked with both large and small businesses; offered strategy, finance and HR assistance; and provided individual coaching to executives, small business owners and even to teenagers.
After all, we had successfully raised three of our own, right? In fact, we were a mess. When a wise marketer pointed out what we had done, we stopped and refocused our messaging.
Goldilocks Syndrome: Case study #1
That effort paid off, and today, we mentor startups for our local small business development center (SBDC). We were recently assigned a startup company that itself was suffering from the Goldilocks Syndrome. The owner told us that his company provided a small-to-medium-size (SMS) business platform that he had developed to help small businesses interact with their customers. He wanted our advice on how to attract more clients for…
