Aug
21
Solopreneurs, Avoid the No. 1 Small-Business Marketing Mistake
In their enthusiasm to begin their new ventures, many solopreneurs jump into the marketing of their businesses and miss the all-critical first step. In my work with clients, this is a common conversation:
Me: “What is your biggest current marketing challenge?”
Solopreneur: “I’m not attracting enough prospective clients.”
Me: “Tell me about the market research you have done.”
Solopreneur: “I didn’t really do any. I came up with this great idea for a business, and I charged right into it.”
A variation of this conversation is when the owner of an existing solo business introduces a new service without properly researching the market.
The solopreneur in both situations has made the No. 1 (by far) small-business mistake: she or he did not conduct adequate market research. Without it, you are playing a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey; you and the donkey are the in the same room, but you can’t hit the target.
The solopreneurs who come to me for marketing help typically started their small businesses with a fairly good sense of their market. They relied on gut instincts to make their initial marketing decisions. But the reality is this: for the vast majority of solo startups, “fairly good” and “gut instincts” aren’t good enough to survive.
What Does Small-Business Market Research Look Like?
The struggling solopreneur with shaky market research is like a medical patient who is experiencing pain symptoms: the doctor’s goal is to make an accurate diagnosis and then prescribe the correct course of treatment. With small businesses, the goal is to conduct accurate market research and then make wise changes to the existing marketing plan.
Small-business market research focuses on: potential customers, existing customers, the competition, and the business environment. The ultimate goal, of course, is business success. Market research provides information useful in developing short-term and long-term marketing plans.
The objective is to:
1. Identify potential target markets
2. Identify customer needs and wants
3. Determine if the product or service meets customer needs and wants
4. Determine the best marketing techniques for each market
5. Determine how market and societal trends could affect the business
6. Examine the competition
Market research ultimately saves time, effort, and money—all of which are critical assets for solopreneurs. It’s no exaggeration to say that market research can be the difference between small-business success and failure.
When I work with solopreneurs who don’t possess adequate market research, I help them find answers to the fundamental questions for their situation. The questions might include:
1. Who are my potential customers?
2. Where do they live, how old are they, what is their education level, what is their income?
3. How do my potential customers make decisions?
4. What are they willing to pay for what I am offering?
5. Can I offer my product or service for that price?
6. What are my existing customers’ opinions of me?
7. How do my existing customers view my business, when compared to my competition?
If those and other questions specific for the circumstances are answered, then solopreneurs are in a much stronger position. They can interpret the research results, examine their existing marketing, and make smart decisions about how their marketing should be adjusted.
Share Your Thoughts
How has market research helped your small business? Share you experiences in the comments below.
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Comments
[...] What’s the biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make? According to one small business consultant, it’s failing to do that marketing research. Do you know the market your business plans to target? If not, you should. Be aware that failure to understand your market can be a crucial failure and put your business at a serious disadvantage. The Solopreneur Life [...]
[...] What’s the biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make? According to one small business consultant, it’s failing to do that marketing research. Do you know the market your business plans to target? If not, you should. Be aware that failure to understand your market can be a crucial failure and put your business at a serious disadvantage. The Solopreneur Life [...]
Well, I will own up that like many entrepreneurs, I played a hunch. Launching into voiceover mid-2010, my first Googlings indicated far more activity of every kind in the USA compared with here in UK, even allowing for the bigger population and high number of media channels. There was more gig variety, more tuition offered, more peer-to-peer sharing. I also reasoned that as a Brit-English voice, I might fit a Stateside niche in this intensely competitive market. That was modestly so, but I wrote a plan that included breaking into my home market once I had developed greater versatility as a performer! Again guesswork: would that happen? When? This is the year to really find out, but I have a plan that sets out a sequence based on which employers of voices are more likely to need my style. That bit is easy to research: simply listen to their output. Much of my time is indeed spent working to understand the market, and keep up as it changes.
Big thanks to Larry for the thought-provoking post.