By JOHNNY CARCIOPPOLO / Community Columnist

Now that you know what ineffective focus is, let’s look at effective focus. Effective focus produces result and it produces rewards.

How to create effective focus:

• Staying true to your voice. When it comes to being successful in business, staying true to your voice is one of the fastest ways to success. When you know your company or organization’s voice, you can stand in integrity throughout your business plan all the way to your marketing efforts.
• Knowing your target audience. Knowing your target audience does not mean simply knowing who they are, but knowing everything about them. What do they worry about? What keeps them up at night? Focus on their habits and their ways and you will be able to connect with them. Both they and your business will profit from this type of relationship.
• Dedicating your business to your niche. Don’t stray from your niche. While it’s great to follow new trends and take on new things, don’t forget your mission statement. Stay true to your niche.
• Trying a few smaller ideas and seeing what sticks to the wall. It’s easy to get carried away when starting a new endeavor. Start small and build your way up. This way, you get to learn what doesn’t work and what is time-tested and works every time.
• Expanding on what works, dumping what doesn’t work. Once you have a general idea of what works and what doesn’t you can move on to the next steps. Get rid of the business practices that don’t prove successful and expand on the ones that do. If you find that you are getting more results on Twitter than on Facebook, spend more time on that.
• Asking for help. In areas of expansion, don’t try to do it all alone. Give yourself the gift of asking for help. While you may want to know about each aspect of your business, like marketing, social media and technology, don’t be afraid to outsource when necessary. Outsourcing can be one of the best tools you own.
• Delegating. Once you have gained enough knowledge and are comfortable with hiring a staff, don’t be afraid to delegate appropriately to each member. Look at each staff member’s strengths and delegate accordingly. When you give people a chance to shine, then they will do exactly that.
• Outsourcing. You can’t be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none in your business. Learn how to outsource. There are many places where you can outsource work from content creation to logo design.
• Learning when to say no. We can’t or don’t do that (example: freelance writing – can you create an infographic or design a logo). Plenty of companies are looking for one-stop shopping, but you don’t have to be all things to all people. Opt to specialize in one thing and be the best at that you can be.