This is the season in which we tend to throw our diets aside and gorge ourselves on whatever happens to be served up at the table or stuffed into our Christmas stocking. So, this article by Seth Godin may be seven months old but it is timely in its topic and in its relation to food. You should read the full article here but I'll summarize it for you below:

In his blog, Godin talks about the choices that a business has: It can remain the same, offering the same kinds of products to its current customer base (which, he says, is akin to a buffet adding two more bacon dishes to its offerings). Or, it can get deeper or wider. 

Godin says that a business that goes deeper is like a buffet that becomes a bacon-only buffet. In other words, the business becomes insanely focused on just one thing.

And, Godin says that a business that goes wider is like a buffet that offers additional foods (like tofu and vegan offerings) for people who might not be attracted to the regular buffet fare.

So, what are you doing to do this year to grow your business? According to Godin, you need to go deeper or wider. Think about how you can deepen your offering so that you are so focused, you'll become thought of as THE go-to person. Or, think about how you can widen your offering so that you become relevant to a far wider audience than you were before.

People.  Yes, it’s pretty much that simple.

Starting and managing a small business, or any business, doesn’t have to be rocket science.  It’s simply a matter of creating a team, with each person contributing their knowledge and expertise which will combine with everyone else’s to be your vehicle to success.

And a team doesn’t have to break your budget.  A team can be as small as two people or as large as ten or a hundred people. Dealing with many small business owners, and large business owners, that’s the one thing I hear again and again -  "I couldn’t do it all myself".  Technically, there are those few that may be able to do it all themselves, but for the larger part of the business population, they brought in someone to either handle the tasks they simply didn’t need to be bogged down with because it hindered their ability to focus on the bigger tasks at hand in growing the business; or, to handle the things that they simply didn’t have the expertise in.

No matter what your business, what point you are at in your business, how much you do or don’t know, or how much or how little help you need – you simply need "people".  (Reminds me of that commercial "I’ve got people!")

You might need someone to bounce ideas off of – this can alone can make such a tremendous difference.  You might need someone to hand off your administrative tasks to.  You might need someone to do your marketing for you.  You might need someone to handle your books.  Maybe you need someone to handle customer support, do research, or any number of other tasks running a business requires. 

Can you really do all of these things yourself, efficiently and effectively?  I suppose it’s possible, again, for a few but surely they don’t sleep or their business takes ten times as long to take even the smallest step forward.

Many very successful businesses started with just two to a few people getting it off the ground, each contributing in their area of knoweldge.  These days, with the ability for many people to contribute to a business from their own home or office, many businesses are starting out with the owner and one Virtual Assistant. 

Costs are cut because there is no overhead, no paid breaks and lunches, no benefits or any of the extra benefits an "employee" would drain out of your pocket.  You pay for the work they actually do and that’s it. 

Even multi-million dollar businesses are using VAs these days. A VA can do all of the tasks above and anything else you need done, from writing to assisting with your website and so much more.  You can have them do as little or as much work as you need or can afford. 

The benefits of a VA to any size business are immeasurable. You can get started with a VA for any task you need and you can easily stay within your budget by working with your VA to determine what they can accomplish for you within your budget.  Maybe they work two hours per week for you; maybe they work 40 hours a week for you – it’s TOTALLY up to you.

All you need is "people".

Karen J. for Contemporary VA