Choosing the right product and customer for your business is key to life-long success and growth. As a mom, owning a business that provides both income and flexible hours for time with loved ones is incredibly enticing. No more long hours in traffic or getting home too exhausted for quality time with your family. As a mom with a business, you get the advantage of managing your own schedule. Although exciting, this requires more than just having a great idea to succeed. It takes adequate planning and strategy to do so. One of the most important factors for success is choosing the right product and customers for your business.
A Jack of All Trades: Avoid Spreading Yourself Too Thin
A common pitfall of new businesses is the temptation to be a “jack of all trades”. This means offering a wide range of products or services in hopes of appealing to everyone. While this may seem like a promising strategy, in practice, trying to be everything to everyone rarely works. It is crucial to identify a specific product and target customers (the market segment) early on. By doing so, you can avoid burnout and maintain focus on what truly matters for your business.
Certainly, you might want to initially experiment with different ideas to see what works best with your target customers. However, doing the background work first and narrowing your focus, will help set you up for long-term success. In this post, I break down these critical areas: finding the right product and customer.
Choosing the Right Product For Your Business
Let us look at Sarah, a mom of two who left her banking career to start her business as a baker. She has a talent for baking and sees an opportunity to make a living doing something she loves. But before jumping into this new venture, Sarah needs to decide what product she wants to focus on in her bakery business. Choosing the right product for her business is her first step to success.
Baking is a broad market, and without narrowing her focus, Sarah could end up spreading herself too thin. Does she want to specialize in bread, cookies, cakes, breakfast treats, or themed party cakes? It is essential to choose and grow one or two product segments before expanding. By focusing on a smaller segment, Sarah can dedicate her limited time and resources to creating quality products. This will enable her meet her clients’ needs, establish a strong brand and build a customer base.
For example, instead of offering every type of baked good, Sarah might start with cupcakes and custom cakes for special events. She can then refine her products based on customer feedback. Once Sarah has a solid foundation, she can gradually expand into other baked goods like cookies or pies.
Identifying the Right Customer For Your Business
Now that Sarah has a clearer idea of her product, the next step is deciding who the right customer is for this product. Most moms in business have family and friends as their first customers. Whiles this offers great support and boosts your confidence, relying on this audience alone will limit your business. To grow her business, Sarah needs to define her ideal customer profile (ICP).
For example, if Sarah specializes in custom birthday cakes, her ideal customer profile might be mothers of young children. These mothers are known as her buyers. She can then narrow her ICP further by looking at factors like age, family income, and geographic location. Sarah’s ideal customer might be a mom with kids aged 0 to 16 years, living in her city and with a medium-to-high income level.
Once Sarah knows her ideal customer, she can tailor her marketing and product offerings to meet their needs. If Sarah’s customers are busy moms, she might consider offering shorter waiting times for custom orders or quick-pick-up product options. The key here is to understand the customer’s unique challenges, known as pain points. In Sarah’s case, this could be a lack of time or the need for convenience. Sarah can now provide a solution with her products. By providing relevant solutions, your products are more likely to appeal to your customers.
Identifying Influencers of Your Ideal Customer
It is also important for Sarah to understand who influences the buying decision of her ideal customer. Although her ICP are the buyers of her baked goods, those who use her products are the young children. Despite the fact that they do not have the buying power, their preferences may influence the buying decision. Preferences such as their favorite cartoon characters or flavors can influence the choices of their mothers. Therefore, Sarah needs to consider influencer characteristics in her product design and also how she markets her products. For instance, she might focus her marketing on colorful, fun designs that appeal to kids, while also highlighting the quality and convenience for mothers.
Research, Validate, and Refine Your Products
To ensure there’s demand for her chosen product, Sarah must research market trends and the pain points of her ideal customers. This can involve looking at what is trending in the bakery industry; are people looking for grab-and-go products or specialty options? Is there a demand for healthier dessert alternatives, or are customers more interested in satisfying their sweet tooth? She also needs to validate her product; this means verifying if there is an actual need for her product by her ideal customer. Sarah could start with a minimal version of her product, this could be offering a small batch of her cupcakes at a fair or local market. By doing this, she can gauge interest and see if people are willing to pay for her goods. Feedback from customers will help refine her product offerings and make adjustments to meet the market’s demands.
The Importance of Studying Your Competition
It is essential for you to study what your competitors are doing in order to understand how you can differentiate yourself and become the preferred choice. What are your competitors offering? Where are the gaps in their products or services that your business can fill? This is where your value proposition comes into play – the unique value your products provide to your customers. However, it is important to avoid getting overwhelmed by overanalyzing the competition.
While it is vital to learn from others, spending too much time comparing can keep you from moving forward. Focus on what makes your business special and use your insights to fuel your growth without getting stuck in a cycle of comparison.
Once Sarah has identified her ideal customer profile, understood their pain points and refined her product, she can fine-tune her marketing message. Her message should explain her value proposition and why her cakes are different from competitors, such as offering unique flavors, faster turnaround times, or the option for customizable packages.
Key Takeaways
As moms in business the journey can be an exciting adventure that requires careful planning. By choosing the right product and customer, you will be on your way to establishing a lasting business. Remember, focusing on a specific market segment and meeting your customers’ needs will help you create a business that thrives and brings you the joy and flexibility you seek.
Choose the right product for your business: Focus on a specific product or service to build your brand and grow your business, instead of trying to cater to everyone. Choose a product that solves a customer problem.
Find the right customer for your business: Identify who has the need for your product and tailor your products and messaging accordingly.
Understand the influencers: Consider who influences the buying decision of your customer and how that impacts your product and marketing.
Research and validate: Understand the current trends, customer needs, and test your product to refine it based on feedback.
Know your value proposition: Study your competition, identify gaps, and differentiate yourself.
