SmallBusinessNewz

I was reading an article today called "Combining Existing Business Concepts" at Small Business Compendium.

The topic of the article is pretty clear from the title. They cite YouTube who combined TV and the Internet. They also cite Google who has branched out from being simply a search engine to providing all kinds of services like maps, blogs, and all of their wonderful tools (not to mention buying YouTube).

The last line of the article particularly stuck out to me. It says "...be wary of spreading yourself thinly from the beginning".

This is in reference to start-ups that try to cover too much ground from the start. Basically, it's good to branch out, but don't overwhelm yourself when you first start your business, or you're likely to come up short in many areas instead of being really good in one.

Take DeepDiscount.com for example. This is a site that has grown in popularity over the years. They offer DVDs, books, posters, CDs, video games, movie memorabilia, etc. I have been using this site for years, and they did not always offer all of this stuff. In fact, it used to be called just DeepDiscountDVD.com when I started using it, and as far as I can remember they only sold DVDs. Eventually, DeepDiscountDVD.com started redirecting to DeepDiscount.com and offering more items.

Now I am not an expert in the company's history, and I may not be 100% accurate. I could not find many reference materials, but to the best of my knowledge, they started off in DVDs, and they did it well. They had discounted prices on many, many titles, and best of all, all standard shipping was free (and still is).

They made a name for themselves in the DVD niche, and now they sell all sorts of items. Would they have been as successful if they had started out trying to sell all of the things that they do now? It's hard to say for sure, but I tend to believe it would've been a little harder for them to grow. They would've been directly competing with brands like Amazon, and Barnes and Noble (which they technically are now).

But starting out within the DVD niche let them stand out and dominate that niche. It helped build them a reputation and establish their brand, which most likely made the growth come easier.

I'm really just trying to emphasize the point mentioned at the end of the Small Business Compendium article. Branching out is good and so is combining business concepts. Just "be wary of spreading yourself thinly from the beginning".