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Guest post by: Mandie Crawford Become an Author

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How can you score if you don’t know where the net is?

Many people who start their own businesses, let’s call them entrepreneurs, do so without very little business training or experience. We begin with what we think is a great idea, and add a little money and a lot of energy, and before we know it, we are in business for ourselves. But many people who start a business fail to do two things. 1) identify your market, and 2)know what they want.

Both of these fall under the broad title of marketing. Yes, you can open a business with no market research, and you will find customers. But unless you are a psychic, very few of us can identify our target market, and know what they want. And identifying that market and filling it’s needs is what will keep you in business, and help you to build it.

So how do we find our target market? First we must ask ourselves, what product or service do we have and what problem does it solve? You may have the best widget in the country but if nobody needs it, you will have boxes and boxes of the best widgets in the country, and no customers. Ask yourself, who needs my product and why do they need it? Both of these questions are the first two questions you need to answer.

When I am consulting with small businesses in this area, this is often the toughest challenge. Take a moment and picture your customer. Who are they? Where do they live and what is their lifestyle? How do they dress, where do they go and what do they drive. All of these questions if answered correctly will give you a picture of your client.

Now that you can see who your client is-picture them in your mind, you need to find out what they need and what they want. Have you asked your client or done a survey to discover their needs? Conducting a good survey can tell you a lot about your customers. Does your product or service fill their demands? If it does you are on the right track. If it does not, is there anything you can do to your product or service that will make it more appealing to your market? Sometimes tweaking your business a little, making small adjustments can make all the difference in how successful you are at marketing your product.

If you have answered the question of what they need or want, picture them again. Where do they go? Are they busy parents, executives or sports nuts? Once you identify who they are you can find out where they go, and that will be where to advertise or provide your product. It can be that simple. If your potential customers do not have time to read the paper, why advertise in the paper? On the other hand if they are community oriented people, advertising in the local community newspaper might be a good idea. If they are sports nuts, advertising at a gym, or a pool or on the golf course might be the most reasonable course of action.

Businesses come and go. The successful ones are the ones who have a good, solid marketing strategy. If you do not have a strong marketing plan, your advertising will be hit and miss. (quite often more miss than hit) Identify who they are and what they need and you will be on the right track. If you would like to learn more about identifying your market or conducting surveys, contact us - we can help!

"One of the keys to effective communication and dispute resolution is understanding ourselves and how we think and also understanding how others are wired as well. Each of us has personality styles that are unique to ourselves - however there are also patterns as well. When you understand the differing personality styles and their blends - you begin to see people as they are with more understanding! For more information on understanding personality styles please contact Mandie at president@roaringwomen.com."

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