Change Happens – Our Identity Crisis

Change is inevitable, especially if you want your business to grow. Remain stagnant and you become stale.

It’s hard to get a crystal-clear picture of who you are, where you’re going and the people you serve if you don’t take the time to re-evaluate your dreams, passion and long-term vision.

You may have noticed some changes around here, too. If not, look directly above this post at the header image above. If you’re reading this in our newsletter, make sure to visit the site to see.

What are those Changes?

I’ve always been amazed at the possibilities the internet offers, especially for anyone looking to grow their business. To me, the internet is similar to the universe, an infinite space, with just a few mouse clicks, allowing you to reach the world.

Think about that for a minute. How amazing is it that you have the opportunity to reach anyone in the entire world! Therein lies the problem we faced with Inspired WebWorks.

Try to serve everyone and you wind up serving no one.

Not even WalMart, as behemoth of a company as they are, serves everyone. Their audience are people looking for the cheaper price.

Identity Crisis

In trying to serve the local, small business owner, we ran into an identity crisis, of sorts. Small business, as defined by the SBA is:

• 500 or fewer employees for most manufacturing and mining industries (a few industries permit up to 750, 1000 or 1,500 employees)
• 100 or fewer employees for all wholesale trade industries
• $6 million per year in sales receipts for most retail and service industries (with some exceptions)
• $27.5 million per year in sales receipts for most general & heavy construction industries
• $11.5 million per year in sales receipts for all special trade contractors
• $0.5 million per year in sales receipts for most agricultural, forestry and fishing industries

Wow! That’s a lot of companies. You would think this would open up more possibilities for us, but it doesn’t and here’s why.

It’s too broad of a group. Even if we didn’t use the SBA’s definition of a small business, for us to truly SERVE, we needed to know exactly who we are speaking to. What are their needs, what is their family like, are they men, women, moms, baby-boomers, retirees, vets, etc., etc., etc.

See the problem?

The Lighbulb Moment

We all have light-bulb moments from time to time and so it happened to me, too.

It happened to me at the recent WOAMTEC conference I attended when one of the directors and several women in attendance asked me, “Do you work mostly with women-owned businesses?”

It really got me thinking more about our clients and how most of them ARE women. (Light-bulb!) Think of the possibilities this opens up!

Not just the same old social media tips, but ‘Savvy Social Media‘. Not the same old ‘Email Marketing’, but ‘Email Marketing with Moxy.’ From our products and services to content and workshops, serving women-owned businesses allows us to delve into and serve their needs in ways we simply couldn’t do before.

And so here we are…with the same passion and dreams for helping businesses use the web, with a focus on women-owned businesses. We’ve been working on ideas like crazy, and will have lots more to share in the coming weeks.

Guys We Still Love You, too!

Guys, it doesn’t mean we don’t still love you, too! Nor does it mean we won’t work with you, either. It just means our core audience and focus is women. It allows us to better serve and be a better company.

I’d love to know your thoughts and comments or what changes you’ve made in your focus? Has your business gone through an identity crisis? If so, how did it change what you do?