A typical small business may start out as a one-man-band or a loose partnership. If you’re alone, then you get to do it all. If there are others working with you, then each will have one or more specialties; but you’ll still end up doing things that either stretches your expertise or is outside of it altogether.

Growing a small business is a tough road to follow. On the one hand, you need to create momentum. You have to give it all you’ve got because you need to make enough money to survive before your nest egg runs out. On the other hand, you can experience too much of a good thing. If your business suddenly takes off, then you could find yourself faced with issues that you aren’t equipped to cope with. Most entrepreneurs opt for the latter problem, preferring too much work over two little.

A particular challenge, however, is what to do when they’re offered a contract from one prospect that’s over the top.

Let’s say that you’re approached to provide a request for purchase that would double your projected revenue for the year. You know that if you do a good job, then it’s likely that this customer will have a lot more work for you; but in order to do it, you’ll need to hire ten more people. You’re already struggling to manage the twenty or so that you have now, and so you know that taking on that many extra staff could make the company unmanageable. That’s because you know that you’re not ready to grow by that much.

What do you do?

To answer that question, you need to remind yourself of a couple of principles.

The first one is that any new work you accept, especially when it’s something that will require you to substantially alter the size or the structure of your company, must be consistent with your core business. If you’re not sure, then ask yourself if this prospect and your existing customers would have enough in common to make your enterprise a topic of discussion at a party. If they won’t, then you may be looking at two niches that are related, but which can’t co-habit effectively.

When two very good opportunities present themselves, some companies will spin off new enterprises rather than try to serve more than one master. It’s so important that you understand which niche you’re in.

The second principle is that your core business is what your customers pay you for already. If you have any doubts about what that is, then look at your invoices. Unless you’re using vague words such as “services” it should be obvious.

The fact is that your customers define your core business.

Unless you’re just starting out, you will have a client base. A quick review of who your customers are will tell you a great deal about what your core business actually is. It will tell you what people buy from you; and it could be that what you think you’re selling and what people are actually buying is somewhat different.

There may be a number of products and services you offer and would like them to buy, but you know from experience that they will only buy what they need from you. They won’t buy what they don’t need no matter how good you are at providing it.

There is wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, and so that means that if you take on a large amount of work that’s external to the core of what you provide for your existing clients, then you’re ignoring their advice.

Any time you’re offered new work, whether it’s just a small job or one that is highly lucrative, you need to ask yourself if it will feel at home among the jobs you’ve done already. This will ensure that you only undertake those things which you should and help you to avoid accepting work only because it will make your bank manager happy.

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