If you want to grow, get back to basics instead of branching out

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One of the things I really enjoy doing with clients is helping them find their passion, their joy, their mojo – whatever makes them say “yes!” or “wow” or “damn, I’d forgotten how much I used to love that.” It’s like getting back to each person’s “basics.”

Today in the news there are a couple of great articles about how people and businesses should get back to the basics to thrive economically. While it might be tempting to spread yourself thinner in this economy, to grasp at whatever might bring in extra income or secure one more client, that’s not a smart strategy.

John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell, writes in the Wall Street Journal about small business owners, “If you’re tempted to grasp for revenue by offering something outside your core product or service, it may be time to hit the reset button on your business. Resetting is a bold move designed to return you to the reason you started your business in the first place.”

I think his advice is just as good for corporate employees as it is for entrepreneurs. Warrillow cites more freedom, more control over your time and fewer headaches as reasons people originally went into business for themselves; I would add that doing something they were passionate about is another reason. And getting back in touch with that passion can fuel you – and your business or career – much more effectively than going on a professional tangent.

Another interesting story by CNN tells how Amish businesses in the US have “an eye-popping 95% success rate at staying open at least five years”, versus a national average of just under 50%. According to Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, by Erik Wesner, a key advantage of Amish business owners is that they “tend to stick with what they know… Everything about the Amish says things like ‘rustic,’ ‘traditional,’ ‘handmade,’ so they play to those strengths.”

I know for me personally it’s tempting to keep expanding my potential markets by taking one more course, developing one more workshop, reading one more book, etc. It helps to keep a copy of my purpose and passion as a coach near my computer where I can refer to it whenever I feel the typical business owner’s anxiety, and to help remind me that there’s plenty I can do with what I already know and do well. It helps calm me down, and when I’m calmer I get the kind of focused energy that helps build my practice around the things I really love and believe in – and that’s what keeps me excited and wanting to do more of it.

How about you? Have you struggled with finding and keeping your passion in mind when the nagging voices tell you to grow your own expertise or build your business? What have you done in response to those voices?