THE QUESTION
New entrepreneurs OR those who have just founded a new company from an idea, consistently ask this question: “Where do I find customers?”
WHY MOST ENTREPRENEURS ARE ASKING THIS QUESTION
When you first have the idea for a business, you think you have it all figured out as to who will buy your product or service. Based on your thoughts, perceptions, and prior experiences you have confidence that a certain type of person would want to buy whatever it is you’re selling, without a question. However, as you get further along in the journey of customer discovery you may find that your assumptions were incorrect. Quite likely, you’ll find that the people who met the criteria of your initial client profile aren’t actually interested in your product at all (especially if they have to pay for it), or there isn’t enough interest to create a financially viable business that is worth your time. That’s why we always recommend clients to start by completing the business model canvas to flesh out the components of their business model before going too far.
THE SOLUTION
Take heart, your customers are out there. You just have to find them and talk to them! The key to finding them is having a strategy, a focused strategy, on getting in their space (and face!) and listening to them. That’s correct, listening not selling. Listening and researching consumes the majority of your time in the early stages of your business. If it doesn’t, you might go months or years working at your business without any significant traction and find yourself asking the same popular question mentioned at the beginning of this post. Without a strategy, finding customers is literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Take heart, your customers are out there. You just have to find them and talk to them! Click To TweetWithout a strategy, finding customers is literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Click To Tweet
We all know that without customers there’s no sustainable business. Many early-stage entrepreneurs are currently frustrated and spinning their wheels in their business simply because they don’t know their customer or they identified the wrong one in the beginning. There probably isn’t one entrepreneur who can say this has NEVER been them. It’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up. This entrepreneurship thing is an iterative process that keeps going around and around as you learn and things change in the market.
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