Here’s something you don’t see every day: Barbershop and guns under one roof. Guns for sale, that is.

Everybody laughs when they see a sign like this. They figure it’s in some “backwoods” town somewhere – way out in the sticks. And they’re usually right. You don’t see strange “combo” stores like this in large urban areas.

And there is a very important (and surprising) reason why not:

The Smaller Your Geographic Area, the More You Need to Be a “Generalist”.

The Bigger Your Geographic Area, The More You Need to be a Specialist.

Let’s say Wagner’s Guns and Barbershop were located in downtown Manhattan. Would it survive? No. The competition would eat them alive.

All it would take is a “guns only” shop to open up next door to Wagner’s. The guns only shop would have a wider selection, more knowledge about his offerings and better prices (due to greater quantity) than Wagner’s.

And if a New York City barber opened up shop next door to Wagner’s it would also win handily. The dedicated barbershop would have room for more chairs, could hire more barbers and stay up on haircutting trends more readily than Wagner’s.

You with me?

Remember: the larger your market, the more you should specialize. You’ll stand out from your competition when you do so. For example, choose one art and focus on the benefits of that one art. Taekwondo, for example.

On the other hand, if you’re in a small town, you’ve probably already discovered that you need to offer lots of different choices: taekwondo or karate, jiu-jitsu, boxing, mma, and so on. The wider your options, the better you’ll do because your market is limited and you can’t afford to turn people away.

Yes, this sign illustrates is a crucially important marketing concept. If you’re in a large market, be a specialist. If you’re in a small market, be a generalist.