Focus: how to allocate time to maximize results
Had another amazing topic request from last week, an important one for solopreneurs
The email responses have been really great lately so I’m going to continue answering them. Last week came a good topic/request from Yvan:
“Focus (where solopreneur should allocate attention and resources to maximize results)”
I love the topic of focus, especially for solopreneurs/small businesses, because I think it’s even more important. The fewer people you have in your business (or if you’re working alone), the more important it is that your time/resources are being allocated in the right places.
It’s so important that I’ve written about focusing as team members here, and extreme focus to block out all of the other “noise” here. So check those short articles out as well if you haven’t read them.
But especially for solopreneurs, I think the most important thing to do re: focus is from that first article I linked to above:
“I think Alex Harmozi said in one of his videos, that to get any business to $1 million per year, you really just need to get good at selling 1 product/service to 1 type of customer.”
Here’s the coles notes breakdown:
most of us think high 6 figure/low 7 figure businesses are these complex, multi-strategy type deals…
Believe it or not, getting into mid or high 6 figures in almost any business can be as simple as delivering 1 really good product or service, via 1 really good channel (paid ads, content, outbound sales, etc.) to 1 group of people
Ironically most people try to do too much, but it’s the opposite. Until $1 million in revenue, focus on selling your 1 core product, to the 1 core target market that shows traction, by optimizing 1 sales funnel
You may have to test a few options for each of the above, that’s totally fine. But once the 1 best option shows its true colors, ditch the rest and triple down
For almost anything else, ignore it or outsource it or deal with it only when necessary
For example, let’s say you’re starting a marketing agency. Offering all services to everyone is a terrible idea and a hard way to find focus.
Instead, test 2-3 options for each of the 3 items above:
maybe you test offering services like paid ads, email marketing and video editing
maybe you test different niches like dentists, or outsourced services to other agencies, or b2b saas companies
maybe you test a few sales funnels, like cold email, sending letters in the mail and organic content creation
You then hit the pavement and test for 3-6 months.
After 5 months, you realize that you were able to land 4 clients and 3 of those clients are dentists that responded to your cold emails, and all of them wanted help with email marketing.
That’s a decent sign that you’re onto something.
I’m not saying that means you have a billion dollar company on your hands, but if 1 channel landed you multiple clients willing to pay for a similar service, it’s a pretty good start.
At that point, I’d focus all my effort on mastering cold email to dentists, and delivering incredible results from email marketing. Anything else - bookkeeping, partnerships, taxes, etc., should be outsourced or ignored until you hit that ~7 figure revenue range.
Make sense?
My personal opinion: one amazing way to try almost any business is organic content to email list to sales.
If you need any help with that, let me know.
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai