When we first started Silverpine, we took pretty much any project that came our way. There were only two of us, we had bills to pay, and we weren’t really in a position to turn down work.

As the company grew, we started getting more selective. We had a lot of expertise in iOS and Android development, so we decided to focus on mobile technology. That meant occasionally turning down projects we were perfectly capable of doing simply because they weren’t the kind of work we wanted to build the company around.

Over time, we built a small team with a broad set of skills that complemented our mobile development expertise. We also developed strong relationships with repeat clients that opened up new opportunities. We continued to be selective about which doors we walked through, eventually settling into what I’ve always thought of as our three-legged client strategy: access control, agencies, and startups.

Each brings something different to the table. Access control lets us apply our deep industry expertise and maintain some of our longest-standing client relationships. Agencies are great partners that bring us a wide variety of interesting projects. And startups give us the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology and new ideas that we can often bring back to our access control and agency clients.

This wasn’t something we figured out overnight, and I’m not sure we could have planned it from the beginning. But eventually we recognized how well these three types of clients complemented each other, and we started making decisions accordingly. One thing I’ve learned from running Silverpine is that having a strategy isn’t just about deciding what kind of work you want. It’s also about being willing to turn down perfectly good opportunities that don’t fit.

It’s hard to turn down good work, especially when you’re running a small business. But over the years, I’ve come to believe that the projects we chose not to take were just as important in shaping Silverpine as the ones we did.