I have some new and unusual opportunities, should I take them?

It was almost starting to feel like Groundhog Day. Last week, I met with three different business leaders on three consecutive days, all of whom were essentially saying the same thing. That they were going to add a new sideline to their business.

What they were saying was not, in itself, remarkable; businesses start new sidelines (products, services, etc) all the time. But what was interesting here was that the sidelines were so incredibly far removed from the talents of the business.

Without spilling secrets, I can tell you that one of the businesses, a successful online retailer of beauty products, was thinking about manufacturing home storage solutions. Another wanted to leverage the foot-in-the-door they had into big corporate HR departments by developing a product that sat as awkwardly with their current business as jewellery sales would to a butcher. And the third business was ready to launch into a random new area on the basis of one, yes one, customer request.

It’s not all together surprising that in the midst of this inclement financial climate all new opportunities look like raincoats. But they really do need to pass the waterproof test first. This doesn’t mean diving into ROI calculations and the like, but rather answering the simple question “does this opportunity play to our unique talent?”

Most often we miss the waterproof test because we have never really thought about what we, as a business, are talented at. So my suggestion this week is that you take some time with your management team to work out what your unique talent is, and then use this new found clarity to quickly weigh up some of your more outré opportunities.

Here is how:

• Start by asking what your business is good at and what your business really understands.
• Now consider what your world is. This part is important because next you will look at what you can be best in your world at. Your world can be very small if need be. This isn’t about world domination but rather being the best at something in your sphere of influence.
• Now, using your responses to the two previous points, think about what you can be best in your world at. This is your unique talent. I am often asked whether it is important to be “the best at something”. Well yes, I do think so, otherwise what is special about your business, how will you continue to grow profitably? But remember, it’s only about being the best in your world.
• An important point to note I think is that whatever you are best at needn’t be a sales differentiator; your unique talent is not necessarily directly about winning business. An online discount store I know has the best warehouse and picking system in their world. As a result of this their cost of sales is kept very low and they are able to price competitively. Interesting add-ons for this business would be those which utilise their warehouse and picking systems, after all, that is their talent.
• Lastly you should also reflect on what you cannot be the best in your world at. Maybe someone else has bagged that spot, maybe you just don’t have that talent. Either way, you won’t want to play there.

Overall, keep this uncomplicated. The idea is simply to have clarity about your unique talent. Once found it will serve not only as an early benchmark to evaluate opportunities against, but also as inspiration in your search for opportunities to leverage. And if you are anything like the three businesses I mentioned above, there are many more opportunities out there.

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses: Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).

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