16 Sep Why I Closed My Company

This morning I read a post featuring Mark Zuckerberg and his take on whether he wanted to build a Facebook Phone. What was interesting is the nugget I gleaned from it. It is the reason, I shuttered my graphics and web-development company. First look at what Zuckerberg had to say.

[box] In terms of new experiences, I think the big theme that we are going to push on mobile is that people keep on asking if we’re going to build a phone, and we are not going to build a phone, right, because it’s not the right strategy for us to build one integrated system where — so let’s say we sold 10 million units, that’d be 1 percent of users, who cares for us, right? The big thing for us is that we have 1 billion people using our products, and we need to make Facebook really good across all of the devices they use, and we’re going to keep on pushing to get more integrated with the system.

When Facebook is a product that people are spending almost 20 percent of their time or more on phones using, it really should be, and I think people want it to be, very integrated into all of the different devices that they have, and that’s what we’re going to focus on. So rather than just building an application that’s a version of the functionality that you have today, I think making it so that we can do — go deeper and deeper, I think is going to be a big focus for us.[/box]

What Zuckerberg is saying is so crucial to my shift in business. I am not trying to build a platform or graphical piece for use with just one person, business, or ministry. Although, It was definitely my business model a few years ago, the model has shifted. To tell the truth graphics was low hanging fruit for our company. It was entry-level positioning for our company with our clients. But as I stated not too long ago, Low hanging fruit is great to start with, but after awhile it will rot your company.

So we shift. Not because we were not good. I think we were one of the premier firms in the urban church marketplace. We shift because it is not about servicing a few but moving a message across the world.

The other part is focus. In business, as in life you find that you have overcommitted yourself and you have bloat. Time-Warner/AOL found that out the wrong way. After merging they realized that company was really too big and had too many directions. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he realized that the company was too stretched and although they were good at a lot of things, they could be GREAT at a few. Friends, that is where I want to be- Not just good but GREAT. How About You?  We are developing new products and product lines as we speak - and look forward to opening them in the marketplace in a few weeks.

Whew. This should be fun. Life Accelerated. Uncommon, Uncomfortable, and Unchained!!!!.