How Doing Too Much Is Hurting Your Business More is not better.

When Lorri Mealey took over her first restaurant in 1999, it was suffering from a common affliction: The too-big menu. You know the kind — pages upon pages of every type of cuisine under the sun. While the idea of ordering a baked potato with a side of lo mein might seem appealing at first, the problem was that none of the cooks could make the same dish the same way.

"This lack of consistency was one of the biggest problems — customers were wary of ordering anything other than a burger and fries because there was a 50/50 chance the food wouldn't taste the same as the last time they had ordered it," she wrote.

Mealey ended up paring the menu down, emphasizing signature dishes that customers could only get at her restaurant. As a result, business soared.