As entrepreneurs we are often presented with new opportunities and more often than not new opportunities do not complement existing ones. However, running in too many different directions can be very exhausting. This articles provides suggestions as to evaluate new opportunities so as not to spread yourself too thin.

Suggestions to help with not spreading yourself too thin

Consider these bullet points to keep from spreading yourself too thin:

• Develop a solid business theme: a business theme should be the thread that ties every new opportunity to existing ones. For example when CBS chose to become an entertainment company, it began to acquire “all things entertainment”. Over the long run, this proved to be a bad idea as there was no thread tying these business units together.
• Select a core business – this core business should lay the foundation of determining what new opportunities get implemented
• Identify the interrelationship between any new opportunities and existing strategies
• Every new opportunity should be tested for how it will strengthen the core business
• The new opportunity should increase revenue without a corresponding increase in expenses. This means that there should be existing resources in place to serve this new opportunity.
• Also, the existing skill set should be able to serve this new opportunity. If the skill set is not readily available, the existing corporate structure should allow for an easy transition.

If these pointers are overlooked, new opportunities become more expensive than they should. To understand what I mean take a look at the acquisition of Ultimate Travel, Inc. by the Maxxus Group. Maxxus Group prime business is Global Management Services (GMS), an event management business that caters to executives. In 2008, Maxxus Group acquired Ultimate Travel Inc. to help boost its core business which is catering to event management for executives.

Maxxus Group had a solid business theme and a solid core business. Theoretically, there were interrelationships between the new opportunities and existing strategies. However, the CEO Hanson Ansary failed to test the strength of how Ultimate Travel will strengthen the core business. Moreover, because of the conflicting culture, Maxxus Travel could not transition over the old employees to the new corporate structure and had to fire them all. Mr. Ansary paid heavily as he had to move forward as if the acquisition never happened. It would have cost him less to start this business unit on his own. Besides the hard assets, he gained nothing in intellectual property, existing market base and specialized skill sets which are the main reasons companies acquire other companies. This is why doing due diligence and asking the hard questions before jumping into new opportunities is important.

Always evaluate your alternatives against your core business values. If you do not have core business values, be sure to develop one. If you fail to do this, you will find yourself tossed around by every wind that blows. A core business theme should enhance the competitive advantage and allow the business to have a sharp focus.