When you first start a business, it doesn’t matter what it is, you are excited. In fact, you’re so excited that you want to rush out into the world and tell every. single. person. you see exactly what you’re doing and how it’s going to change their lives. You find yourself out there in the world, running around and at least metaphorically scurrying from one person to the next person to the next, just trying to find someone who thinks you’re business is as rockin’ as you do.
Here’s the thing…
Not everybody needs your business.
Now don’t run up there and click the back button. Just hear me out. When you try to talk to everyone, when you scurry around trying to talk to anyone who will listen you end up running into a bunch of brick walls, you waste a lot of time you don’t have and you can get really frustrated. It’s really not necessary. All you have to do is narrow down your focus. Only talk to the people who are an exact right match for what you have to offer.
Now… even if you think you’ve narrowed down your focus, and you’re talking to someone in particular are you really? If you told someone who your “right people” are would they be able to recognize themselves in that statement? If they don’t say “oh that’s me” or “oh that’s not me” you’re not clear enough yet.
Here’s some examples:
I’m talking to Perfectly imperfect work at home moms who want to raise a family, build a business and create an extraordinary life…
even if I just said I’m talking to perfectly imperfect work at home moms…
You see how I really call out to the moms who work at home and aren’t “perfect”. Do you think if someone read that as a tagline on my site they’d know right away if that was them or not? That’s what you need to do.
Here’s another one.
I’m helping parents who want to be more playful with their children
See how this is different than parents? Not all parents want to be playful with their kids, and you only want to talk to the ones who do. Call them by name so they know you’re talking to them, and the others will go away so they don’t scare the playful ones. 🙂
One more.
I’m talking to working moms who want to make a home cooked meal on weeknights but don’t have a lot of time.
Do you think this would speak to those people… and if you had a way for them to get a home cooked meal done in 20 minutes or less… don’t you think they’d want to see what you’ve got? If you said this to a stay at home mom who has all day to cook, they’re probably less likely to care because getting it done in 20 minutes is less important to them. You will get way more yeses talking to the right people.
The more specific you get the better.
Once you’re clear on who your right people are it’s much easier to find them. Think about where they hang out, where they spend their time. Whether it’s online or off, you can go to them and start to connect. You can have a conversation with them, sit down for a cup of tea, really get to know them. This connection will make all the difference.
When you’re connecting with your right people, not only do they see how they can benefit from what you offer, but they will know other people who will benefit as well. From the relationships you create with one or two of your right people, introductions will start to happen and you’ll find yourself having fun, meeting more people and growing your business.
Think about it… who are your right people? Next time I’ve got a fun little exercise you can do to help figure this out.
image credit: GraceFamily
