Introduction
You’ve come up with a great idea for a business. You’ve identified your target market. You’ve put together a great product or service and you are all set up and fired up to get going on your business. You wait for your phone to ring . . . and you wait . . .. and you wait. And it doesn’t happen. Why?
Could it be that you had focused during much of this early phase in everything but marketing your product or service? Many entrepreneurs miss that Marketing is a vital component of a new business setup. Others know they have to do it, but often shy away and/or delay from engaging in this area. This is especially true for those who are introverts; this group would rather spend their time working on their product or service and not out trying to sell it. Per Beth Buelow in The Introverted Entrepreneur, 90% of your time will need to be spent on sales and sales-related activities in the first year of business. 90%!!
If you are not spending 90% of your time on these activities, it means two things, 1) you are not going to succeed at the level you desire and 2) you are looking at selling and marketing completely wrong, says Dean Graziosi in Millionaire Success Habits.
People Buy You before they Buy Your Product/Service
As an entrepreneur, and likely a solo-preneur (single person in a business), you are the face of your business. Your clientele isn’t buying from a faceless entity like a Proctor and Gamble. They are buying because they like your story, believe in you and trust that your product or service can help them achieve their goals.
The story of WHY you started your business, what you want to achieve through the business, is important to customers and potential customers.
Justin Rosenstein was a product manager at Google in 2005 and was spending 90% of this time in meetings and on emails. Dustin Moskovitz, who was head of engineering at Facebook was in a similar situation. Both were very frustrated. They started asking, “Isn’t there a better way to work with people?”. Justin developed an internal system for collaboration and he found that everyone in the company used and loved it. They went out and launched their new business, telling their story of frustration as the reason for the birth of this new business. Many of their customers could relate to their frustration and ‘bought in’ in what they are selling!
In 2008, Asana was born, The Asana story. Today Asana’s customers include GE, Allstate, Deloitte, Uber and Airbnb, just to name a few.
Your Story
So, what is your story? Why are you starting this business? Or if it is established, what is the reason you started it? The answer isn’t money. While it is necessary to make money to stay in business, that reason won’t resound with your customers. You need a higher goal; a vision of why the business was started in the first place. What do you want to accomplish through this business? What is your driving motivation? What is your WHY?
Let me give you an example. For babyboomercashnow.com, our Vision, our Purpose is to help entrepreneurs around the world. This is accomplished two ways. First, it is through providing education, resources and tools to white-collar professionals in their 50s that are in a business or starting a business. Second, it is by helping entrepreneurs that don’t have the opportunities we have in the US. Let me explain.
Even during the Great Recession, when many white-collar professionals lost their jobs and homes, and industries such as financial (mortgage and investment) were especially hit hard, however, they still could feed their families. The number of people on food stamps skyrocketed. It was a very difficult time, but we survived. We had safety nets provided by the government.
In other parts of the world, those safety nets don’t exist. It is up to the individual to figure out how to feed his/her family and obtaining money for daily necessities is a constant struggle.
Our Vision
This is why our Vision at babyboomercashnow.com is not only to provide education and resources through the blog and other methods, but to also contribute to the operations of Kiva International, a non-profit that provides microfinance to budding entrepreneurs around the world. I really like Kiva’s mantra, “Dreams are universal, opportunity is not”.
Kiva – Hope for Entrepreneurs
There was a recent story on Kiva’s website about the Nogaye group, which is a group of 23 women in Senegal that focuses on retail. Mrs. Ndeye Fatou, is the leader of the group. “She is forty-five years old, married and the mother of three children including one boy. She has a small business selling fabrics. She has been doing this business for more than six years. With this new loan, she is planning to buy ten pieces of wax [pagne cloth] and to pay the transportation with the remaining amount.
With the earnings, she will help to cover the daily expenses, provide for her children and strengthen her savings.”
She needed $4600 and was able to raise it. One hundred and thirty-six (136) people have contributed to her business loan. Obtaining this loan will make a dramatic difference in the lives of those 26 people.
Or the story of Flor Del Carmen who lives in the village of San Antonio de la Balsa, a coffee-growing community a half hour from San Ignacio, Peru. Flor Del Carmen, 33 years old, lives with her daughter who is a minor, 7 years old. She maintains her own 2.50 hectare plot of coffee of excellent quality (organic) which she sells in a local cooperative. She needs $925 to purchase soil amendments to improve her production in the next coffee season.
Kiva has thousands of stories just like these.
I want to help Kiva give hope to individuals, to families, that they can have a better life by creating a small business. These loans will change their lives. I want to be a part of that.
I believe there are many potential entrepreneurs that are white-collar professionals, in their 50s, that are taking a hard look at themselves and the remaining years of their lives. They want to leave a legacy of having helped others and would like to do so through their new business. I believe the vision of babyboomercashnow.com will strike a chord in the hearts of Baby Boomers and they will join me on this journey.
Why does your business exist? What is your story?
Who is your product/service for?
Having a compelling story is a great start for your business. But of course, people buy from you when your product/service helps them obtain their goals and satisfy their needs. However, a great story is not enough.
The better defined, the more precise a business is in determining their core market, the more successful the company will be.
Some companies have tried to satisfy a very large market and had initial success, but ultimately lost market share as competitors sliced and diced the market.
Henry Ford sold 15 million Model T’s from 1909 to 1927. By the late 20s’ GM had surpassed Ford in sales and Ford never regained its sales lead. Why? Henry Ford had only one model of car for years and famously said, “People can have the car in any color they like, as long as it’s black.”
By the mid-1920s, cars were more affordable, and the economy was doing well, hence the term “roaring 20s”. Consumers wanted a choice in cars.
Today, there are car manufacturers that specialize in sports cars only (Ferrari), or SUVs (Land Rover). I can have the most wonderful sports car in the world but someone looking for an SUV wouldn’t be interested in my car. This is a basic illustration, but I think you get my point.
You’re not Selling, You’re Educating
In any business, you need to sell to stay in business. Many people feel that reaching out to sell to someone is bothering them. These entrepreneurs may have experienced pushy salesmen, can’t stand them and don’t want to become one of them! We all loathe being thought of as pushy and most feel they don’t want to bother anyone with their product or service. So, we wait for the business to come to us, and we wait and wait and wait. Business will not come on its own; one way to bring in business is to tell our story.
Your target audience does have use for your product or service. Some do want what you have to offer and are willing to listen. The key is to reframe in your mind and belief about “selling”. You’re not “selling” your target market something they don’t want. You are “educating” them, as Beth Buelow says, “We enjoy being able to educate others, sharing our knowledge. If they decide not to buy, it’s because they are the wrong audience, or we did a poor job of educating them.”
If we find that our message is not resonating with our “target market” then one of two things is happening. We are either not talking to our target market, or we are talking to our target market, but the benefit we are providing is not compelling enough for them to buy.
If either is occurring, we need to reexamine our product/service and ask ourselves the following questions:
- Is it possible that my identified market is too broad? Can I more precisely define my target market? Is there a subset market that would find greater benefit from what I’m providing? Is there a unique market niche that would fit best with my product/service?
- What are the characteristics of that market and how does what I’m providing match up to the wants and needs of that market?
- How can I sharpen my message so that when I educate a potential client I create a compelling desire for client to buy?
- How can I make the benefits even more clear than they are today?
- Are there benefits that I had not thought of that are a better fit for this niche?
Take the answers to these questions and honed your message so that it is to the right audience and make sure the message is crystal clear as to the benefit that is provided by you product/service.
Once that is done, all of us just need to educate as many of the right people as possible. As Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want, if you just help enough people get what they want.”
Actions:
- Identify the compelling reason you are starting this business.
- Will others want to be a part of that vision?
- Describe in detail your target market.
- Psychographics (opinions, activities, interests)
- Demographics (age, education, occupation, etc.)
- Identify the benefit(s) of your product/service for this market.
Let me know your WHY. I’d love to hear from you. Send me a note at alan@babyboomercashnow.com