Creative Entrepreneurship Basics: What Should I Focus on in my Business? (Part 2)

I missed you last week, but I’m back and excited about sharing another piece from my “focused diversification” pie. Now, just to refresh your memory from part 1 of  Creative Entrepreneurship Basics: What Should I Focus on in my Business?, let me give you a little snippet that clues you in on my homemade definition for “focused diversification.” And here it is . . .

. . . figure out a few things you do extremely well or things that are going well — applying them to other things that complement them, work in conjunction with them, and/or are similar in nature to them. Then, capitalize off of these cooperative strategies to diversify products and/or services you offer in ways that have the potential to impact a wider group of your peeps in the places where they’re looking for solutions to their wants and needs.

Yes, focused diversification is my attempt to “work smarter, not harder” in these online roadways.

And, I firmly believe that observation over time is a great learning companion when it comes to honing in on those areas in your business that you should focus on and implement your own strategy of focused diversification within. Observation over time because it takes time and careful research of outcomes to flesh out those strategic efforts of your creative business that are doing well (financially) or are going well (process-wise).

So . . .

Now that we’ve had the brief recap from last discussion, it’s time to move on to THAT OTHER strategy that I’m currently engaged with and enjoying every moment of our time together, which is some of the reason I didn’t make an appearance last Monday. (But, I digress.)

In fact, this strategy has already proven itself to be an absolute winner. But, this focused diversification effort didn’t appear in my dreams overnight. No, it became apparently clear after some observation over time. And, here’s how it came into fruition.

For months and months and months, I’d heard (from other Creative Entrepreneurs) how powerful seasonal products can be. And, I kind of tucked away this rhetoric back in the recesses of my mind for some time before really internalizing what was being said. Ideally, I figured seasonal products were a good idea and that they were good for other Creatives’ businesses, but I was going to focus on more of the evergreen stuff that would be fashionable all-year-round.

Certainly, the evergreen products are key and foundational for a business to thrive. But, the seasonal stuff can be just as productive if its specialized focus is brought into view during the most opportune time(s), where the clarity of its picture should be projected out to its intended audience.

Such was my thinking process when examining the results of one of my most successful products on Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT), my basketball activity pages for children. And specifically-speaking, one product stood out in sales above the others — the “Design Your Own Jersey – Basketball Activity Sheets.” (You can check out this offering by clicking on the image below.)

So, guess what I did, after noticing these little (yet BIG) observations?

Well, I decided that, for the next set of products to go up on my online stores, I would concentrate on a variation of seasonal products — a product line of sorts — that would cater to this fall season. And here’s how my thinking process went . . .

I know that sports are pretty popular in a child’s repository of pastimes. And, it doesn’t matter whether or not a child plays an actual sport on an organized team or not. Most children like some type of sport and will spend time either playing it themselves or watching it played by others.

And then, I presumed to contemplate the likelihood that activities surrounding the things children like, especially during the times when those likeable things are front-and-center in a child’s mind, can be incentivizing in a child’s learning processes. And when something’s incentivizing to a child’s learning processes; then, it’s going to gain the attention of the adult in that child’s life. Yes, sireeeee!

Then, I looked at what sports are gearing up right about now in this Fall season. Hmmmmm. . . I do believe basketball is gaining momentum right now. And how convenient that I have some basketball activity sheets for children in my retail repositories. I could just add to the basketball product offerings I already have. (Actually, I may just do this in the future because such an action would fall in line with the whole focused diversification mindset.)

However, I extended my thinking processes past “basketball” and decided to consider the possibility of expanding my horizons by acknowledging the widespread popularity of football during this time of year. Hmmmmm, again. Yaaassss. Football is BIG TIME in these parts, so why not design a set of football printables for children?

Are you with me, adults with children?

And the beautiful thing about creating these football products is that I already have a blueprint to work off of — the basketball products. Of course, I’ll have to make the basketball blueprint football-centric and will even be swapping out the basketball maze to create a football crossword puzzle instead. Nevertheless, I still have a template to work off of.

This is what I call FOCUSED DIVERSIFICATION in one of its best forms.

So, my first football product is out on my Teachers Pay Teachers store (with the rest of the football products rolling out over the next couple of weeks). You can check it out by clicking on the image below. I put this new product out last Tuesday and sold my first one on that Thursday (two days later).

Focused Diversification with Seasonal Products works! I dare you to try it.