Are you a Specialist or a Generalist?
Caroline Gowing
Guiding motivated self-starters to run a thriving Virtual Assistant business. Winner the EWiF Overall Woman in Franchising 2024, 5 Star Franchise Satisfaction for 9 years and listed in Elite 50 Top Franchises.
I have discovered the podcasts from Amazing If, and their podcasts about Squiggly Careers. Today they spoke about the differences between being a generalist or a specialist in your work, and it got me thinking about the network we have in Pink Spaghetti.
Most of the team and franchisees in our network have had some sort of specialism in the past, solicitor, police, HR, marketing, IT and many, many more areas. Yet I think our selling point as a business is how our skills are very generalist. All these specialists we have brought into Pink Spaghetti, have all got amazing general skills, that is what we do incredibly well.
You could even say we are experts at it.
In every small business, there are general skills that are needed, and there are specialists. I think that the small business owners we work with are often the specialists, they have super strengths in certain areas, the reason they started their business. It could be photography, hypnotherapy, presenting skills, coaching, floristry, the list goes on and on. If this specialist was not in their business, it would fail. Likewise, if that specialist could spend more time doing what they are great at, what they are specialist at, then their business would be more successful.
But look at everything they do in their business that is a general skill, probably 80% of those things are the same in every business. These are the things that a generalist is great at! What sort of things would these be? Just check out our website for a clear list! It is what we do all day every day for all sorts of business.
Which is better, a generalist or a specialist? The podcast came to the conclusion that I agree with. The answer is neither, it is all about the relationships you have in your business. The value comes in bringing the two together, having people on tap who are complimentary to you.
Symbiotic relationship
So thanks for the thought-provoking podcast @amazingif, and I look forward to listening to many more.
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5 å¹´I'm going to have to check out this podcast now. Thank you. This is a good article and a slightly different take on why businesses should outsource. I love that as small business owners you are asking us to think about things only we can do and all those others things that anyone can do. It's reminded me to both value what I uniquely do and also seriously consider what others could do better. Hope.all your franchises have read this - it would be a good conversation starter