Finding Focus

Jack of all trades master of non, a common enough expression.  Mastering a trade will take you very far in the construction industry, but to take yourself far in your own business you need focus as well.  Without focus you end up running all over the place and getting, ultimately, no where.  Admittedly this focus is something I lack; I just have way too many interests that are all slightly related.  Building furniture is not so different then building custom millwork, and trim carpentry is in the same ballpark home building.  Isn't it?

This lack of focus has plagued me for sometime now, and it is no where more apparent then when people ask me what I do.

"What do you do?" 

 "O I...you know I build...stuff, O and I renovate...and make custom furniture...and do some traditional woodworking and...you know other stuff...I yea make things"

 "Right" (silent slow head nods follow)

"you know I build...stuff" is not a great opener especially if it is a potential customer or business relation you are meeting for the first time.  Also not so great on a first date either.

Recently though I have been spending time trying to reconcile this problem and gain some much needed focus.  I know what I like to do, and I know what I don't like to do, I know what I want my business to accomplish and what I don't want it to venture into.  Knowing this is going to help me narrow down my focus, so now I am not running all over the map, more like ,maybe, two soccer fields and a baseball diamond instead.

I would love nothing more to work in my shop or in someones home building wonderful wooden "Things".  I would love to never have to answer phone calls, or read emails or deal with stupid people.

I do however want to own a successful business, and I want that business to renovate old homes and bring them up to modern standards.

So what is my focus.  Broadly speaking I want to run a renovation business that specializes in updating

older homes (preferably in the 100 year plus range).  The hope is this will combine my love of building with my love of traditional woodwork (old homes are full of traditional woodwork ,usually), and if I am lucky this will be successful so I can gain free time to spend on my other passions.

Cheers

Hans Christopher