I was a young, dumb entrepreneur. This is my story.

I'd sit there, meeting after meeting, call after call:

“And what does your agency do, Carrie?" the prospect would ask me.

"We are a social media agency,” I’d say. “We help you achieve your goals through social media!”

“Oh, interesting!” the prospect would reply.

“Do you....” and the list would go on:

• Build apps?
• Run Google ads?
• Engage influencers?
• Do online PR?
• Do social event marketing?
• Create websites?

My answer would almost always be: “Yes!”

After all, we were a growing company, not funded by anyone other than ourselves, and we had a ton of experienced staff who could simply “figure this out.”

When there was something that I didn’t know how to price, I would (and I'm embarrassed to admit this) go through this special back and forth:

“How much does it cost,” says the prospect.

“What's your budget?” says Carrie.

Did we grow? Yes. In fact, we made the INC 500 for two years in a row! Was it painful? You bet. We had clients that we didn’t serve well, we had staff that left because they were stressed, and my hair went almost completely gray at the age of thirty.

Now I'm older and hopefully a little bit wiser. I've learned a ton along the way. I was speaking at a Women 2.0 conference the other day, and I was asked the biggest mistake that I have made throughout my years growing a company.

Without question, my biggest mistake was a lack of focus.

What I’ve learned is that figuring out what you do best and doing just that can make you happier, calmer, and also a heck of a lot richer! Here are the steps we took to focus Likeable Media and become a more successful, thriving organization.

1. Solve a specific problem.

I really don't think that we could have grown Likeable to the scale that it's currently pacing without answering the fundamental question of: What problem are we solving? For us, we knew that brands were under constant pressure to be publishers, putting out content that resonated with their community and got them reach and results. They simply couldn't keep up. And so, Likeable shifted and focused its efforts to create, curate, and promote content that gets results. We changed our pricing model and our staffing model to essentially do three things: content creation, community management, and social advertising. All of these three capabilities tie back to solving the core problem of brands—they need more content that resonates with their customers and gets results.

2. If you can't solve that problem, say no.

Just today, I was on the phone with a potential client who asked if I would personally train their team on social media. It would be a day of my time, and I'm certain I would leave them feeling energized and ready to rock. Unfortunately, this is not part of our core service offering, and so I had to say no. Similarly, I had a client who wanted us to create really compelling content for Facebook, but didn't want to run Facebook ads to support that content. I had to advise them that this wasn't the best use of their money, simply because they wouldn't get results. The reality is that business partners respect and trust you more when you only accept business that's in your wheelhouse.

3. Scale with a high value/high profit proposition.

When you focus, it gives you an opportunity to hone and perfect your product. Make sure that product can scale and that it is highly valuable to your customer. (Hint: Even service businesses can do it!) Then, make sure you are focused on building a business that makes money. I talk often about not getting caught up in the sizzle of tech company fairy tales—where companies make no revenue and sell for billions upon billions. Think early and often about how your business will make money. If not today, then in the near future.

What do you think is the most common mistake for young, dumb entrepreneurs like me?

Originally published on Linkedin Pulse.