The Pumpkin Plan

Well known author Mike Michalowicz has come up with plenty of different strategies for running a small business, including famous cash management system Profit First. Another ingenious concept is “Pumpkin Planning” your business. Meaning, focusing your efforts solely on what you do best and most profitably, and cut out the dying parts of your business, or goods/services that are a drag on your profitability and time.

Frequently, we try too hard to be everything to everyone, and as a result end up not doing very good work for anybody at all. On top of that, we end up working ourselves to death trying to keep up with the requirements of these different services. Not all of us can be Walmart or Amazon, and provide a vast array of goods/services profitably.

Instead of going broader on what you do, why not niche down and get ever better what you’re already really good at? This will not only position you as the expert in your field, but will disqualify prospects that you do not want to do business with. Say you’re a new real estate agent that says yes to any and all business. As a result, you’re driving around buyers all day that may not even be interested, or are far outside your geographical area. The end results, tons of wasted time and money chasing and servicing folks that you don’t really want to work with anyways. Instead, home in on where you excel best and pour gasoline on the flame.