There are many ways a business can get bigger – more customers, additional sales, staff size or even product or service offerings. Growth in any of these areas can result in bottom-line growth as well. All good, so far.

But bigger isn’t always better. One lesson we can take away from the recession’s aftermath is that there’s incredible benefit in staying focused on your company’s sweet spot. Knowing what you do best (both in terms of results for the customer and profitability) allows you to hunker down and wait out an economic storm.

It seemed that organizations that were spread too thin or tried to be something to everyone really got thrashed around when the economy tightened.

That lack of brand vision and bad habit of taking on clients they couldn’t serve profitably ended up costing many businesses a significant amount of money and in some cases shut them down.

Especially when times are lean, it’s very tempting to chase dollars, even if they’re outside your normal scope of services. After all, a dollar is a dollar, right? But that bad fit will inevitably cost you time and money. The biggest loss is that it takes your eye off what you do best.

It takes a savvy business person to be disciplined enough to not stray outside their core competency. That’s not just smart business; that’s smart marketing. How can you differentiate yourself or be seen as an expert if you do everything?

As you look at what this year will hold for you, is it possible that you could grow your business by being smaller? What if you said “no” to work or clients that took you out of your sweet spot?

Maybe it’s worth a try.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached by e-mail at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2011 Drew McLellan