Using the Hedgehog Concept to Find Your Business Sweet Spot

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The hedgehog concept is based on three intersecting circles, all of the same size and all equally important. Those three circles intersect in the middle, and this is the sweet spote where you should aim for in business.

The first circle in the hedgehog concept describes what you can be the best at. This is not meant to be a goal, or strategy, an intention or a plan. It is simply a clear statement of fact, developed by honestly looking which area you can shine. It is the result of analysis not desire. It is just as important to define the areas in which you are lacking skills, so you can avoid them or outsource.

This is not necessarily related to your abilities in a given area. You may be very good at math, but that does not mean that you can be the best person in the world at math, even with great effort. Instead keep in mind that what you could be the best at may also be the something you are not doing right now. Before there were computers, how did Bill Gates know what he was going to be  the best in the world at?

From the second circle you discover what your are deeply passionate about. Ask yourself this question: "If you are making all the money you wanted, and you were doing this job, would you still come to work?". When you can say to yourself. "I am the luckiest person on earth right now. I was made for this job!", you truly have it discovered this answer.

In the third circle, you ask yourself, "What is driving your economic engine." Aim is to discover the single function which gives you profits while allowing you to pursue your passion. This is usually a perfect message to market match. Where you have identified your ideal target market profile and crafted a marketing method that reaches them best.

The most important thing is the sweet spot in the middle, at the intersection of these three circles. If you could live your life in that place, you will feel satisfied, enjoy the rewards of your business life. You will feel satisfied, energized and love your work. You will be doing something that leverages with your ultimate core competency, something you can be the very best in the world at. You will be deeply passionate about your work and can hardly believe you are getting paid to do what you love. That passion and joy, closely linked to your market drives your economic engine.

You will want to be right in the center of the hedgehog concept. It is no good having two out of three... you need it all! If you are passionate about what you are doing and good at it, but there is no money to be made, you are going to be a very frustrated camper. If you are good at what you do and you are making lots of money, but you hate your job, it is becomes meaningless, and you always want more, but never arrive at the satisfaction you crave. If there is money to be made in an industry that you are passionate about, but you are not particularly good at it, that is both stressful and frustrating too. So you want to be and live in the intersection of these three circles. - your business sweet spot

Of course, this means research on your part. Look for your hedgehog concept, by seeking the intersection of the three circles. Everything that you do should lead you towards the intersection. When it happens, you will find that this that this sweet spot guides not only your business choices, but your life choices as well.

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