Know your market
By“Who is your market?” was a question I was often asked when I was working with coaches when I was setting up my business – and one that I never felt very comfortable with.
In the first place, it took me a long time to time to come around to the fact that I was running a business – I had a “practice”, I saw people, but I couldn’t see it as a business. Consequently, I was often worried about money, because I wasn’t very efficient or business like about what I was doing. After several years of resistance, I now run my coaching practice as a business. I can honestly say that none of the things that I feared have happened – I still care very much about the people I work with, I work to my standards of integrity and I haven’t turned into a raging capitalist!! What I do have is a much more relaxed attitude to money, a lot less anxiety, more help in the areas I need it – and I can serve more people with the time I have.
The second resistance I had was to seeing people as a “market” – it seemed like it was demeaning people in some way. I wanted to offer what I had to everyone. That was great in some ways, but there were definitely people who I preferred to work with and who seemed to resonate more with the way I work. When I started to work on-line, it became apparent to me that I would need to focus on working with a particular group of people – if only to make it easier to make all the decisions that I had to make. When I started off I was always changing direction – I’d ask people what they thought about something, and be influenced by what they thought and slightly change my focus. This lead to a lot of time wasting, worry and expense as I changed things around again.
About a year ago, I finally realised that I wasn’t spending enough of my time doing the things I love – coaching individuals and groups – because I wasn’t focussed enough on who I wanted to work with.
So now I know that I work with women 30+ who are on a conscious spiritual journey and wanting to either: a) find their life purpose b) grow their business in a spiritual way c) become their own boss, or d) increase their sense of prosperity. This has helped me immensely, as I now know who I am talking to and I can really focus on these areas.
Something happened today that really brought home to me what a relief it is to “know who my market is”. I am working with my VA, to design some new graphics. I had a couple I was looking at and emailed them to a friend, for her opinion on the changes I was thinking of. Whilst she was looking at them, her 23 yr old son came in and she asked him to take a look. He didn’t like anything about them!! Especially the name “Good Vibrations Coaching.” He didn’t think it sounded serious enough for coaching and a few other reasons. I felt great, because I could listen to his opinion, but not feel that I had to have a response to it or to change because of it. He’s not my market!! I have had a lot of positive feedback from people who are my market, and they’re the people who matter to me. It was a great lesson.
So if you don’t know who your market is – whatever it is that you are doing – start getting clear now. It will really help you in your decision making in all aspects of your business.
