Enterprise Nation

Are you staying stuck in a job because you think you don't have everything it takes to escape the cubicle and create a dream 'free range' freelance career?

Maybe you think you are creative with plenty of ideas, but don't have the focus... or maybe you feel you are organised and focussed, but don't have enough new ideas.

Here's the secret - you don't need to be an all rounder superstar. In fact, knowing your 'one best thing' and focussing on that can make you shine.

Take the lead from an Amazon bestseller: the Flip Cam.

The Flip Cam is the 'fastest selling camcorder' on the market. It has won the battle in a highly competitive handheld recorder space, packed with thousands of innovative products.

To be the best seller, you'd imagine the Flip must have a whole load clever features, right? Like a flip out screen, plenty of clever buttons, and new super-whizz technology that no one else has thought of.

It doesn't do any of that.

In fact, Flip doesn't do much at all. Except for:

1. Record film (point and click)
2. Get the film on your computer (ready to upload straight to You Tube with the built in USB).

That's it - record and remove. Basics like earphone sockets? Not on the Flip, sorry.

This is astounding in the camcorder world, where people have been fighting to create the ultimate allrounder product.

The Flip came in with almost no features and beat them all. People said this approach was insane - after all, the market research showed that users wanted extra features. Ask anyone and they want more, not fewer features, right?

Flip's strength is that it refuses to be an all rounder. It focuses on one thing, for one part of the market, and it does that well.

Here are 3 things you can learn from the Flip Cam

1. Flip knows its market and doesn't try to please everyone. (It's the entry level handheld that's the easy choice to buy).
   Who are you trying to please? What if you said no to being everything to everyone and only did what you do best?
2. If users outgrow it, they can move to another product, but it will always have a loyal group of entry level fans
   What if you saw other people in the field you are considering as potential collaborators rather than competitors? (as a sideline, that's been how I've grown my business - and trust me, it makes for a whole load more fun along the way too!) What if you spoke to these existing businesses rather than looking at their websites from your desk and thinking "damn, they got there first"?
3. Flip is a best seller because people know what it does. It is attractive to buy because it refuses to play the all rounder game - you see it for what it is and you understand it.
   Flip got the branding game right. Branding is not colours and logos, it is simply figuring out what impact you will make on people and communicating that clearly. Without faff.

The simpler you make your message the more likely you are to be successful... and the simplest messages are not given out by all-rounders.

So, what is your thing? If you were a Flip Cam in your world, what would you focus on, and who are the small group that would love your message?

Marianne Cantwell is Chief Chicken of Free Range Humans. She is also director of career change coaching organisation, Career Revolution, creator of the Dream Career Group Coaching programme, and a leading writer and speaker on career change. You can follow Marianne's Free Range adventures on Twitter.

Photo credit: wizetux