Do you have a passion for one industry over another?
Answer those questions and you will be on your way to narrowing your ideal client down.
3 Tips For Finding Your Ideal Client
Once you’ve decided who they are, here is how to reach them.
Tell your business story. What makes you unique? What unique insight do you bring to what you do? Use your story to connect with potential clients and as a way to tell what you do without being overly salesy
What do you have that the competition doesn’t? What are your unique goods or services? What is your unique selling proposition aka USP? Know this and you can determine your ideal client — it’s the person for whom you can address a pain point with your goods or services
Delve into your current client base and notice any similarities. Notice whether you have clients that just don’t fit and ask yourself why you’re sticking with them? There could be definite reasons you are, but only you know. What are common characteristics your clients — share? This could put you on the path of understanding who your ideal client is
After you’ve uncovered your ideal client, you can focus your marketing and your efforts on that niche. You may find that once you have a niche you will begin thriving. For example, I have focused my business expertise on swimming pool construction and swimming pool service clients. Why? Because that is my area of expertise. What’s yours?
Can your business compete in the “Amazon” and “instant delivery” era? There are some businesses — thankfully in the pool industry with pool contractors and pool service businesses — that can compete but others struggle in the instant gratification era. Many businesses have struggled since the pandemic and because people came to rely on delivery rather than going out to stores. What your biz can learn from mom & pop shops is something Rex Richard and his Peak Dynamics team discuss when they strategize with their clients.
You can compete, you just need to know the “insider secrets.” I’d read an article about what independent bookstores are doing to compete and stay viable and thriving. These are a few lessons I gleaned that could help any small business owner who operates a brick and mortar.
What Your Biz Can Learn From Mom & Pop Shops
Community matters. To compete with the nameless, faceless big box stores, it’s all about community and building a connection with your customers. You don’t need a brick-and-mortar store to build a community. Look for ways to stay connected through emails and even by building an online group.
Be like Amazon and offer an “if you like this, you might like that” to introduce a customer to a new good or service you may have to offer.
If you have a retail outlet, is it appealing to customers when they walk through the door? If you have an online business is your website and online presence welcoming?
Small retailers can compete even with the big box guys. You need to help yourself and your business stand apart through customer service and connection and community building.
Overworked. Overcommitted. Overwhelmed. Do any of these words ring a bell with you? As an entrepreneur do you feel out of control and feel that you have to say yes to every networking event or yes to every client even if they aren’t ideal? Rex Richard gets it and that’s what he works with his clients on during coaching calls and he shows how entrepreneurs can take control of their businesses so they have balanced lives.
Being an over-committed entrepreneur will lead to burnout and dissatisfaction with your endeavor. You need to find a way to work smarter not hard — yes it’s a cliche, but it’s true — in order to focus and deliver for your clients and prospects (and yourself).
How Entrepreneurs Can Take Control
Here are ways to take back control.
Stay in your lane. Look at what you’re saying yes to, why. How can get better processes in to help you know what to say yes to and what to pass on. No one is forcing you to over-commit — think about that.
FOMO — fear of missing out — is real. I get it. Everyone experiences it and people want to be involved in everything and anything. Don’t let FOMO be a “motivator” for you.
Pay attention to your calendar. Don’t say yes until you look at what you already have going on. To avoid over-committing you have to know your availability and block out time for you and your necessary tasks as well as personal and family life.
Set goals. Work on the tasks to achieve them. If you don’t know what the important things are you let items fall through the cracks. Keep in mind that important tasks could be the most time-consuming and require the most effort, but you need to complete them to move forward. Block time in your calendar to complete these items.
Self-care is crucial. You may be thinking, “I’ve over-committed. I don’t have time to take time off or get a good night’s sleep.” You have to lose that mindset and adopt a mindset that you are the most important person in your business and if you’re not taking care of yourself, it will fall apart.
Ask yourself:
Are there certain people you always say yes to?
Are there certain tasks or jobs you always say yes to?
Do you find it hard to say no because of FOMO
Do you have a clear roadmap for your success and goals?
Do you have a clear picture of who your ideal client is?
Reach out to Rex Richard about business coaching and goal setting. Start 2023 with a clear path and without the overwhelm
My team at Peak Dynamics has been remote before it became a trend during the coronavirus pandemic. I have long relied on technology to connect with my staff who is scattered across the globe. I couldn’t run my businesses if I didn’t have implicit trust in them to do what needed to be done. Do you trust your staff? If not, why do you have them working for you?
My contractors are hired for their unique skills and their dedication to what they do for me and for my clients. I vet them well and know they are dedicated to what they do for me, even if I am not their only client. Trust is a two way street. I trust them to do what needs to be done and they trust me to give them the tools they need to excel.
Sure, there have been some missteps along the way but because of those incidents, I learned what to look for and how to avoid those missteps in the future. It’s a live and learns and learn to let go and let your staff — whether they’re in the office or virtual — run with the tasks they’ve been given and become trusted members of your team.
Once I have a team member in place and trained to the unique way in which I do things in my Peak Dynamics pool industry marketing business (hint: hire people who have the skillsets you seek and you can train them to do the nitty-gritty that is unique to your organization), but you need to learn to trust your employees.
Do You Trust Your Staff?
Here are my tips for doing just that:
Provide training to do the job to the best of their abilities in the unique way you operate your business.
Set specific expectations
Set reasonable goals. Don’t be vague in what you expect because your staff/vendors won’t know if they’re attaining the goals you’d set if they can’t pinpoint a set point.
Have an open-door policy so employees know you’re available if they need help. Don’t make them waste their time going down the wrong path if they can just reach out to you for clarification.
Look for employees who show initiative.
Let them know you appreciate their efforts and what they bring to the team.
You may not want to completely change your business name, logo, tagline and colors or you could confuse your past clients. But if you’re expanding or changing or adding a completely new focus, then a new brand could be just what you need. There is no reason you can’t tweak your current brand to make it more current or relevant in today’s market. The last thing you want is for your brand to look old and tired even if the offerings behind it are current and relevant.
Does Your Business Brand Need A Refresh?
You’re offering new and completely different services or products.
The business model has changed and you need a new and different logo to reflect that change.
The business management team has changed. You want a new logo to set yourself apart with a new identity.
If you are pursuing a new target audience, your brand should reflect that.
Does your old logo look tired and dated? Does your brand reflect a fax machine or a beeper? LOL, if so, you should definitely upgrade and update. If you are taking your business in a new direction and targeting a new audience a new logo or brand identification might make sense.
If your old logo simply looks tired or the colors look dated, you might want to freshen it up with new colors.
Use your new branding as a way to garner new and fresh excitement in a social media campaign.
