Time to make the donuts.

Found a new weblog today -- Cracked Cauldron Spillings -- which is kind of an on-line diary from a mother/daughter tandem who are opening a bakery in Oklahoma. In this post, the bakers hit upon a fundamental business truth:

Having discovered the most wonderful donuts in town, we will not provide donuts in our bakery. It seems - redundant - to try to make donuts when someone else makes really really good donuts. Especially since they are located just down the street from the locations we've been investigating. . . . Like any other sensible people, we will buy our donuts from The Best Donuts Shop. . . . So, it will work out well. Their donuts are soooo good. Yes, we could probably make donuts every bit as good (or better), but why? It's not part of our menu, equipment purchase plans, or business plans. I don't think there is any point at which we will be offering donuts.

As a general practitioner, I still find it very difficult to stop trying to help everyone who comes through the door, and instead focus on that small segment of legal consumers I can help most (and best). However, I have reluctantly come to recognize that other lawyers in my area can do many things better and more efficiently than I can. I now know that offering a novel way to deliver legal services to my core customer is the way that I will achieve my goal of becoming a more satisfied (and more successful) lawyer. I just wish that I would have realized five years ago that I didn't have to make donuts when my competition was already making great donuts.