Finding Your Sweet Spot

5 strategies to assure effective execution of the How to Hire the BestTM Solution: Part Two of Five, Finding Your Sweet Spot

Many of our clients come to us struggling to be profitable, due to the compound effect of years of undercharging in an attempt to remain competitive. Being the specialist within a clearly defined niche allows you to be competitive and charge what you need to charge to be profitable. 

At Tap the Potential, we help our clients become the specialists by zeroing in on the Sweet Spot of the business. The Sweet Spot is the intersection between your top clients’ needs, your company’s strengths (what you do exceptionally well day in and day out) and unique offering, and the systems in place to deliver that service. This process is based on the book, The Pumpkin Plan, by Mike Michalowicz.

This is a process that is even more refined than simply identifying a niche for your business. The process of Pumpkin Planning your business laser focuses on your greatest opportunity to be sustainably profitable within a well-defined niche.

Michalowicz, Mike. The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field, (Portfolio, 2012) and Provendus Group (ProvendusGroup.com)

Complexity is the enemy!

Standardized repeatable work makes it much easier to systematize, automate and scale a business. All of this translates into greater profitability for you (along with fewer employee headaches).

Being all things to all people will stretch your business too far. You know what you’re excellent at and whom you want to serve. The real issue is discipline. Learning to say no, setting a clear vision for yourself and your business, and identifying the players (i.e. employees, contractors, strategic partners, and yes—ideal clients) are all part of building an effective strategy.

Think about not only what you do well, but what your ideal client values.

Personify your target audience and think about their perfect reaction to your work or your product. In order to receive this reaction, what’s necessary? Who’s responsible? What systems are in place? What pleased them? Is it time? Cost? Level of service? This is all part of your sweet spot. Your compilation of differentiating characteristics is your competitive advantage. 

Sure, it’s important to know what your “competitors” are doing, but you’ll get lost in trying to compete with others. There is enough business out there for us all. Find your perfectly matched clients and customers by knowing what it is that fuels you and what you are confident you do best. Then, figure out how to build the infrastructure to support it. 

Fall back in love with your business.

A business with a clear Sweet Spot is much more profitable, is easier to manage, and you get to work with your favorite clients. It also makes hiring much easier. What’s not to love? As the first strategist to become certified in the Pumpkin Plan, I’ve had the privilege of a front row seat to witnessing the impact of well-executed Pumpkin Plans in our clients’ businesses. Want our help Pumpkin Planning your business?

How close are you to having a highly profitable, great place to work?
Could you to take a 4 Week Vacation™?

Take our 10 minute assessment to discover which foundational pieces you have firmly in place, and what to work on next to transform your business into a highly profitable, great place to work that allows to take a 4 Week Vacation™.Apply to work with us today!

How to Hire the Best, Contractor’s Edition is expected
to be available in Fall 2019! Stay tuned!


Dr. Sabrina StarlingThe Business Psychologist™ and author of the How to Hire the Best series is the founder of Tap the Potential.

At Tap the Potential we specialize in transforming small businesses into highly profitable, great places to work and sending business owners on 4 Week Vacations to celebrate that achievement.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses — no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing — and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from their strengths.

With her background in psychology, and years of driving profit in small business, Dr. Starling knows what it takes to find, keep and get exceptional performance out of your biggest investment — your team members.

Access Dr. Sabrina Starling’s How to Hire the Best Masterclass and team building tools at www.TapThePotential.com

About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.