What does Devious mean to us?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the origin of the word “Devious” as:

Late 16th century: from Latin devius (from de- ‘away from’ + via ‘way’) + -ous. The original sense was ‘remote’; the later sense ‘departing from the direct route’ gave rise to the figurative sense ‘deviating from the straight way’ and hence ‘skilled in underhand tactics’.[/su_note]

The stark reality of our modern, globalised market is that it’s hard for a small business to pick low-hanging fruit or be just a “one-stop-shop”. Unless you haven’t been Googling small business advice, you’ll have encountered the concept of finding your niche. You need to be ideally positioned to take advantage of those opportunities when they appear. Otherwise, you end up competing with organisations that have more money, more manpower and more market presence who can bully you out of the market. You need to “deviate from the straight way”.

This means that you either need to find your niche; disrupt the market or have stellar marketing senses to stand out.