Monday, June 15, 2009

What's your thing?

Over the weekend, my friend shared with me that he wanted to go into business himself. The business was in making cakes.

Getting into the food business has always been a good idea but unfortunately, it is also a very difficult industry to survive in. After the initial tests of his products I was left feeling un-impressed by the whole tasting.

Not that what he did was bad but rather what he didn't do that left my taste buds wanting more.. To me he's baking skills were exceptional based on the fact that that if you asked me to I would not be able to reproduce such a cake.

But what was disappointing to me was the lack of a thing for his cake. What do I mean? Well, whenever you do something be it a business / any sort of project, I find it incredible that most people don't start off with asking themselves these 3 simple words... What's my Thing?

What's my thing is built upon the idea that every business/project has to be unique, it has to have its own thing. Most people refer to it as a point of uniqueness or differentiation, I prefer to just call it a Thing.

So my deal with my friend's business was not that he was going into the wrong business or that he was not a good baker, it was that his cakes had no sense of uniqueness (i.e. a thing). They weren't shaped differently or had a unique flavour. It was just a very good cake.

Someone once mentioned that very good is the enemy of great and I believe that's true. In today's business world, it is already a general consensus that your product or service has to be good. But what makes you truly memorable is that you have to have a thing and that moves you from very good to great.

Think about it this way, I'm sure many of you out there know a person or place that bakes good cakes, but tell me, do you know anyone who makes an awesome cheese cake or a great chocolate cake? Ask yourself, if you say they're good what makes them so different about from the rest of the chocolate and cheese cakes out there?

So whenever you think about embarking on a new project or business, you first need to ask yourself - What's my Thing?