One of the biggest debates in entrepreneurship is whether to build a "niche market" company or a "broad market" company.
However, to be fair, sometimes the debate takes on other related forms. You might encounter it as a discussion between "lifestyle" businesses and "venture-backed" businesses. It can also be a debate about "small" businesses versus "corporate" or "enterprise" businesses. And my personal favorite version is between "boutique" firms and "multinational" corporations.
Regardless of the terms used, the crux of the matter comes back to whether it is better to build a targeted business that focuses on a relatively small and specific customer group, or whether entrepreneurs want to scale their ventures as much as possible to reach as many customers as they can.
Personally, I have always struggled to advise on this particular issue because I can see the merits (and drawbacks) of both options. However, thanks to my wife's desire to do some landscaping in the backyard last weekend, I had a real-world experience that helped me understand the right answer.
Shopping for Camellia Trees
I hadn't planned on driving an hour for shrubs. I was busy doing my Sunday morning workout when a group text from a neighbor popped up on my phone.
My wife had been wanting to update our backyard landscaping for a while, so she poked her head into the room where I was exercising to ask if I wanted to go.
“Sure,” I gasped between breaths. In my mind, we would drive to one of the half dozen places to buy plants near my house, pick out a few plants that looked almost the same as all the others we had, and maybe grab some lunch.
I finished my workout, took a shower, got dressed, and hopped into my wife’s car. A few minutes later, we were on our way to…