X MARKS THE SPOT

When you’re bright eyed in the early days, the belief that your startup will be good at everything can be tempting. However, when your resources are low, you have to focus your efforts and be the absolute best at just a few things. If you try to tackle it all right away, you’ll spread yourself too thin and never stand out among your competition. Your startup strategy should look like the X on the right, not spread thin like the model on the left.

Shade in the different sections by how you’re allocating your resources. Think about the number of people and the amount of money you have dedicated to different departments, and have that reflected in how much area you shade. Ideally, you want to see an X once it’s shaded in. If you have a circle, you’ve spread your resources too thin, and you won’t be able to win at anything.