Reflecting on 20 years in business, I thought I’d post about what I’ve learnt in that time and this would be my number one.
In my favourite business book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, it Is called the Hedgehog Concept.
That comes from a Greek parable:
“The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing”.
The fox tries everything to get the hedgehog, sneaking up on him, moving fast, but the hedgehog wins every time by doing the same thing over and over and rolling up into a sphere of sharp spikes.
Your Hedgehog is all about the finding the intersection of 3 key dimensions:
✳️ What you can be the best at
✳️ What you are passionate about
✳️ What drives your economic engine
When I started my business twenty years ago, I knew that I wanted to work with startup technology companies as I had all the experience of doing that from my previous job plus I had worked for listed corporates so knew which I preferred.
Starting a business from scratch, if you don’t have a niche, you can really only compete on price so I knew from the start that it was important. It is difficult at the start as when starting a business it is tempting to say “yes” to everything as you need the income but a sign that the business is succeeding is when you start saying “no” and recognise your dream client.
Nowadays there are many different types of accountant with specialisms.
Last week I got some very useful advice from an accountant who was an expert in crypto currencies and recently ICAS – The Professional Body of CAs helped me with a list of accountants who are specialised in dentists after I got an enquiry about that.
Other accountants that I know well include experts in pension scheme audits, the let property campaign, gyms and fitness businesses and being a “green FD” and B Leader (able to certify clients as B Corps). I’ll let you say who you are in the comments!
The great thing with LinkedIn is that we can all help each other out and pass on appropriate leads.
What is your Hedgehog? 🦔