Meet Jack. He does it all.

He sells every kind of vegetable you could possible imagine. Everything from locally sourced carrots to imported artichokes. He sells a small quantity of every vegetable you could possibly want.

But there’s a problem: he holds a lot of stock, which he doesn’t always sell. Often it goes bad on the shelf. Part of the cause of this is his approach to business. He reckons that if he sells a little bit of everything then people will come to him for all their vegetable needs.

But they’re not coming. And his business is in trouble.

Part of the problem here is that Jack specialises in nothing. Yes, he’s only selling vegetables, but he’s not specialising enough. He’s being too broad and trying to be all things to all people.

There’s pressure from new competition.

Very recently a specialist grocer opened a new store just down the road, selling nothing but peas. This new grocer made an instant name for himself in the community as a pea specialist and word spread quickly that he sold the best peas anywhere in town.

His targeted approach worked beautifully. He sold every type of pea there was. From broad peas and snow peas to fresh garden peas.

People came to him because he was the best, and out of that he became known as the ‘pea expert’ and his business boomed.

Now back to Jack.

Jack continued to struggle, and found that nobody was buying his peas anymore. In fact, they weren’t buying much of anything anymore. People had learned that by going to specialists, you get better value, and a better product. It’s also a better business for our pea expert too because he can profit from the economies of scale that come with specialising in just one area.

Now transfer this thinking over to the web.

Specialisation is absolutely key in succeeding online. It’s far too easy to buy from another seller. I don’t even have to walk down the road, it’s just point and click and I’m there. So if you’ve got an online business, you’d better make sure you’re specialising in something. Otherwise, you’re just a Jack of all trades.

Since launching our new business model, a few people have asked us how we’ll fund the development of each new project. The answer is pretty simple: by being fast, keeping costs down and then using the revenue we generate from other areas of the business (such as our existing client apps) to fund it.

The whole idea here is to get rich slowly.

This new approach is our way of becoming a successful and profitable company on our own steam. And for that, we’re happy to take some risk now in order to reap the benefits later.

In the diagram above, we’ve illustrated how we plan on achieving this. To start, there’s the yellow band, which represents our consultancy work. This is made up of existing contracts and traditionally priced projects which we still do on a restricted basis. Because it’s directly proportional to the number of hours we can work, I don’t expect this to increase too much without making some new hires.

The different shades of blue represent the recurring revenue generated from new projects. To simplify the diagram, I’ve made a few assumptions about each new project:

• they’re completed at regular intervals;
• their usage increases over time;
• their value is roughly equal to each other;
• they remain in use for the foreseeable future.

Obviously this diagram is the absolute ideal, and I expect that in reality there will be a lot of humps and bumps in the smooth lines modelled here. But overall it represents where we want to get to as a company.

Slow Success is Better – And More Likely

We’ve all heard of the overnight successes like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace etc. But hitting the big time is like winning the lotto. It’s a one in a million shot. The odds are stacked heavily against you.

You could also look at it another way and say that because of all the hype and media attention these companies receive, that budding entrepreneurs and business owners have an irrational expectation on the success of their own projects.

We’re Taking Our Own Route

Instead of trying to hit the big time, grab onto the next wave and hope for overnight success, we’re planning on becoming successful slowly. It’s a lot easer and far more likely then creating the next Internet sensation.

It may not be as sexy, but it’s steady, it’s deliberate, and we’re the ones in control.

Hi everyone, I’m Iarfhlaith, and I’m the founder of Webstrong Ltd. I’m launching this blog so I can share the ups and downs of running a web business with all of you. I’ve got some really cool things planned for this company and I’m going to blog it all here.

Over the last 18 months or so, Webstrong has gone through some radical changes. It’s grown from a one man operation to a fully blown web development company with an office, awesome clients, growing revenue and most importantly a great team.

We’ve been working hard at growing our business, offering web development and web design services. But now, we’re also starting to focus on developing our own products as well. Footprint will be the first of those, and we’re very excited about its future.

Raising Our Game

Starting this blog is part of an effort to raise our game in this industry. I want Webstrong to be a company that stands head an shoulders above the rest. One that’s known for absolute professionalism, genuine innovation and razor sharp execution.

I’ll deliver this through really great service, kick ass products, truly dedicated support, and by providing plenty of inspiring stories on this blog along the way.

I’ve lots of exciting things to put up here, so come back often and check them out, because I’m only just getting started.