I am sure you have heard from business experts that your business should be adaptable and versatile. If those experts are referring to being able to quickly evolve to meet changing needs in your industry, then this is good advice to heed. But there are some of us who interpret this as needing to provide a diverse range of products or services in order to gain enough customers.

For example, when I started my graphic design business, there was almost no type of print design work that I would reject. I was doing everything from business cards to wedding invitations and my marketing materials covered pretty much everything I could think of! But I soon found that by narrowing my niche, I gained more clients.

Think about how you seek expertise: if you are looking for an accountant for your business, you are more likely to retain a firm that specialises in small business, than one that focusses on tax for individuals. Or if you were looking for someone to make a wedding cake, you are unlikely to choose someone who creates children’s cakes. You want the experience that comes with the understanding of a specific product or service.

So how do you work out what to focus on in your business? One way to help this decision is to choose the areas that you most like to work on. You are going to be much more motivated to improve your skills and become the best at what you do if it is something you actually like doing! The passion you have for your niche will be evident to clients via the way you promote and the manner in which you engage with them about the product or service. You should combine this with researching the needs of your clients, to find out what they may need. You will begin to establish yourself as an expert, and are likely to find that people are happy to pay more because they know they are getting quality results.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

At some point in your time as a business owner you most likely agonised over your business name, or the name of a new venture or project. You probably switched back and forth between the ‘practical/descriptive’ name and the ‘creative/unusual’ name, and everything else in between. You probably asked friends and family what they thought of your top choices to gauge reactions.

That process was important. Not only because your business name is a key aspect of your business, but also because it gave you lots of opportunities to evaluate what your business is about and what you want people to ‘hear’ or ‘see’ when they come across your business name.

But is the name the be all and end all? That is, does your choice of business name determine the success or otherwise of your business? In some extreme cases, when you’ve chosen badly, the answer might be ‘yes’. But in general, your business name does not matter that much.

Over 99% of your success is going to come from the decisions you make after you name your business. There’s no ‘magic’ in the name. You could have chosen the most perfect, fantastic name in the world, but if you make lots of dumb marketing decisions after the fact, then it will be wasted. Conversely, if you market well, develop your brand, consider products carefully, have great customer service and so on, your name becomes secondary.

You have probably learnt a long time ago that there’s no ‘magic formula’ for anything in business – if there was we would all be doing it! Business success, no matter how well or poorly the business is named, will come from hard work, determination and will power.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender