I’m not sure why, but I get sucked into American Idol almost every year.

Last week, or this week (we tape them to watch later sometimes so I don’t remember) I overheard someone on the show ask whether this was a talent contest or a popularity contest. Hmmmm.

It brings me back to student council elections in high school. Did the best person always win? No. Well - if they were the most popular person they did.

How does this relate to business?

You could have the best singer in the world preforming on American Idol. But if they choose the wrong songs for them, if you’re a fan of the show, you know they always get voted off.

If there was a competition for you, in your business, and you are offering the wrong types of services - services you don’t excel at - would you be crowned the winner? Probably not.

If I tried to build my business on offering desktop publishing, I wouldn’t have made it past year one. I enjoy it, but I’m not great at it. I don’t offer it unless it’s through one of my skilled associate VAs.

When you’re in business you must have a clearly defined target market, and you must offer only services to that group that you do exceptionally well. Anything less just won’t stand up.

Again, if the best singer in the world was on the American Idol stage, but every week they came out there looking unkempt and sloppy and acting obnoxious, they would not last. People wouldn’t vote for a person they find annoying.

This brings us to branding. A business needs a professional polished image to  make it. It’s that simple. You could be the best wallpaper hanger in the country, but if you have a website with lots of annoying pop ups and graphics, inconsistent branding, poor grammar and bad navigation, visitors will move on. Today’s consumers don’t have time for that kind of thing. Not with all the choices they have.

Consider this. There’s a new competition for your industry. You make it through the first round of eliminations, and then the second. You find yourself in a group of the twelve best (your profession here)’s in the country. You are given 90 seconds each week to demonstrate to your nation why you should be crowned the winner.

What do you do to make yourself shine?

Those are the things you should be doing everyday for your clients.

If you’re currently doing things that you wouldn’t showcase for that audience, maybe you should consider whether you should be doing them at all….

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