One of the biggest mistakes we all make is going after markets that are too big. We look at a market and want it all, fast. The reality is that if you are a small business, you need to define your market. If you are a real estate broker, investor, contractor or other professional you need to look at the profitability of each sale and how many you can execute each week, month or year. From there you need to adjust the amount of people in your target market.
Do you need to work in just a single town? Or maybe 3 towns, 6, 10 , an entire county or state.. How frequently do you need to stay in touch with your prospects to develop new business?
Today’s business plans are completely different than what they were even two – three years ago. Search engine optimization, online newsletters and social media enable you to reach a lot more people consistently, than was ever possible in history.
The Million Dollar question then becomes, do you dig deeper into a smaller market or expand into a larger area? If you run your business by yourself, you can only handle a certain amount of business. Certainly you’ll do more with less utilizing today’s tools. You can brand yourself in a small, local market as if you are a giant. Many businesses will find they can dominate their local niche. Competitors won’t keep up unless they do exactly what you do. That is highly unlikely.
Let me know about your market and we’ll take a look at a quick business plan that you can implement.
Edward Winslow
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