What Are You Looking At?

Focus. For that you need to be able to see close up. You also need to be able to see mid range, as well as long distance. But what happens if all you can see is far ahead. Like... here's what I make, I want my own store. Or... here's my website, I'm gonna sell loads. Or even... here's my product, Oprah's gonna love it.

Yes. We've all been there. We had the dream. We made the products like there was no tomorrow. Only to find there is a tomorrow, and we're paying dearly for it today while we watch our little business stand still in a myriad of yesterdays.

Sometimes, I feel like Dorothy. I'm standing in my CEO shoes, but when I click the heels... they don't take me home. In fact, they take me anywhere but home. I've walked what feels like a million miles in these shoes, and I still don't feel comfortable in them. It's like the soles are gonna wear out before I've even broke them in. I never wanted to be a CEO. I just wanted to make soap. Then folk bought it. Oooh, that felt good. It felt even better when the same folk returned to buy more. Then they brought their friends. Thank you very much!

Then came the website... and it was like, "Where's all the traffic?" Of course, that question only came about after I'd already lived the future. Yes, here's my website... I'm gonna sell loads. I think that was my first hard lesson. It was back in 2005, and it would be two long years before I realized something that could have saved a lot of hair being torn out from my roots.

You see, there's a thing called a "Target Market", and if you don't know it... it's gonna jump up one fine day and bite you in the proverbial. It was a question I had been asked right back in the early days when I was plotting and planning my little company:

"So, what's your target market, then?"

"Target market? Whaddya mean?"

"You know... who's gonna be buying your soap? What people are you aiming at?"

"What d'ya mean, what people am I aiming at? Everyone uses soap. I'm aiming at everyone."

And as naive as that may sound, I meant it. I actually said it with a straight face. I can still feel the sense of my reply inside now as I think back to it. What a stupid thing to ask. And what's more, I told him so. Here I was trying to plan a proper business model, and there's my techy guy husband poking his nose in with what amounted to nothing other than stat-head stuff.

What did he know? He's just one of those math heads with a scientific brain. He uses flow charts, and makes maps. I know what a map is... I can pick one up from the gas station. Data analyst? So some folk need a map showing data. It's all numbers. I suppose someone's gotta do it. I hate technology. It always lets me down, crashing and wiping my work. Well, I don't need to know how a computer works, and get this if you don't get anything else... there's no room in my soap business for excel spreadsheets. Not now... not ever.

Oh, yes. That told him. I wore those CEO shoes, and how! They felt pretty good too. Well, I thought they were feeling pretty good until two years later, when I found myself puzzled at why my fantastic website wasn't taking me to Wall Street.

That's when I discovered the value of target markets. What they are... and what they do. You see, not only do you need to know what your target market is, you also need to have an understanding for how the target market behaves. Are you aiming at the right target market? I thought I was. I mean... who doesn't use soap?

So, everyone uses soap... but not all use a computer. And of those who do, not all shop on the internet. And of those who shop on the internet, not all want a smell they have never smelled. Not all internet shoppers want to buy their soap on the internet. And what's more... those who shop in stores, like to handle and hold. They like to pick up and smell first hand what they are going to invest their spending money in.

Hmm... I wasn't there yet. But I was certainly gaining a sense of what a target market was. More importantly, I was learning what my target market wasn't. And I was learning it from data. I was learning it from numbers on maps. I was learning it from excel spreadsheets.

I'm the farsighted CEO, and I'm always learning to bridge the gap between what's in front of my nose, and what's in the distance. I'm using focus. Without it, there's no middle ground in view. Unfortunately, the ability to view the vast area that is the middle ground, is what makes the difference between success and failure of any small business.

Do you feel that you're walking in molasses? Do you know your target market?