You are NOT your target customer

I'm going to repeat that one more time for those in the back! You are NOT your target customer!

Crazy as it might sound, but understanding this concept and all that it implies is one of the most important steps in reaching your target customer and providing them the services that they need. Everything from your marketing to the way you create your website, the contacts and touch points you have with your customers and the delivery of your good and services needs to speak to your target customer. And that person, simply put, is not you!

Why can't I be my own target customer?

Well that's easy! Because your pain points are not their pain points. You're good at what you do. In fact, not only are you good at it, you're better than most. You're passionate about it and love what you do! And that's amazing. It's what makes you good at running your business. It's what makes you someone your customers what to buy from.

Your target customer? They are not good at what you do. What you're good at solves their problems and pain points. Your strengths are their weaknesses. You are what they are searching for, because they cannot or don't want to do for themselves what you provide. Maybe they aren't good at it. Maybe they are and simply hate it.

The point is, if they were you, they wouldn't need you!

So why should I care that I'm not my target customer?

Because that means you're not the barometer for what is and is not a good move in your business. Really getting that you're not your target customer means that you're not the final check. In your own head, you shouldn't be asking "Do I like this?" Instead you should be putting yourself in the shoes of a person who needs your service and figuring out if they will like it. That's hard to do. Which is why we often rely on market research, polls and customer feedback to understand what is and is not working for them.

I struggled with this for so long! I would think, "I'd never pay that for this service" or "That's something that I can totally do myself!" And that's the point. I wouldn't pay for my services, because I could do it myself. But when I asked other people those things were annoying or difficult and therefore something they were more than willing to pay for to get results and save themselves the headache. So rather than thinking about what I would pay for, or how much I would pay, I had to start trusting other people and the market to tell me what the going price for a service would be.

This change had a direct impact on my pricing, my advertising, my website design and copy and so much more. It even changed how I spoke to customers about what I was offering!

I began to realize and behave in a way that communicated that what I was offering was really valuable to them! Because it would be helpful.

Ok, I'm not my target client. So who is?

This is where you start identifying who is it that would benefit from your products or services? Well, first they don't have your skills. They have other interests and abilities. They're also struggling with accomplishing easily or quickly or efficiently what you offer. But it would benefit them. So what group of people would benefit from your products or services (remember they have to have a use for them) and also be willing to pay for those products or services (can't or won't do what you're doing themselves).

Now, get a bit more detailed. Why is this such a pain for them? What problems do you solve for them with your service? Where do they like to hang out that you could tell them about yourself and your business (social media, google, coffee shop bulletin boards?)? Taking some time to put together a bio for the type of person who will buy from you, helps you speak to them.

What impact has adjusting your mindset to realize you're not your target client had on your business?

#smallbusiness #runningasmallbusiness #targetclient #idealclient #targetcustomer #businesstips #businesscommunication #smallbusinessefficiency

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

We've all gotten a survey after a purchase or in our email after buying a service. And sometimes we ignore it, but sometimes we fill it out and offer that brand some insight into our experience. Is this something your business needs? If so, what should you include? How do you send it out?

This wasn't something I had set up early on, and it may not be something you've even thought about. I thought I knew how my clients were feeling about my business and had all the answers. After doing surveys, I've realized that many of them do affirm what I already know, but they also offer great insights that can help grow my business, offer better customer services and make sure clients that have something to say have a chance to be heard!

Who needs customer satisfaction surveys?

Everyone!

Absolutely every business can benefit from asking their clients about their experience and insights.

I genuinely don't believe that there is any business that can't learn something from their customers. And a survey allows for a much lower pressure way of asking. Sure you can ask every client in person for their thoughts, but they might feel caught off guard or pressured to answer a certain way. In a survey, anonymous or not, it takes some of the pressure off and give them time to think.

What should I include?

There are lots of questions you can include, but my favorite are the following:

1. What made you decide to choose my business? If you want to know how to attract new clients it's helpful to know what drew your existing ones to your business in the first place.

2. If you were trying to find a business such as mine when searching online, what would you search for? Do you know how clients search for you? Keywords and search patterns online are constantly changing. Stay on top of what your clients are searching for by asking this. This will put you ahead of the competition, by allowing you to focus on what your clients are searching for, rather than what businesses think clients are searching for.

3. Can you describe one way I'm better than other ______________ (photographers in my case)? If you want to find your differentiators and strengths the best source are the clients that like your services. It also tells you what your clients value. If your differentiator that you're using to sell yourself is something your clients don't care about, it won't help you much. But if they tell you it's something you do better, you know it's a characteristic that is important to them and took enough note to tell you about it.

4. What is one thing that I could do to make sure you have an even better customer experience? Not only does this help you uncover things you may have done that need improvement, but also gaps in your business model. A service or product that you may be missing or some small add-on clients have grown to expect. It also might lead you to a brand new business expansion idea that you may never have thought of. Many times what happy customers will share as room for improvement is actually an opportunity for growth!

5. Would you/do you refer me to others? This fairly generic question allows customers to answer with a simple yes or no. You can gauge the general feeling toward your business.

6. How likely are you to recommend me to others? (On a scale of 1-10) Use this question to calculate an NPS score. It offers a bit more detail and helps you get numeric handle on how your clients feel about you.

7. And would you tell me why? Rather than just tell you if they'd recommend you, offer the option to explain their feelings on why they would or wouldn't tell their friends about you. This answer tells you several things. If they said no, this answer let's you know where you can improve and what it would take to have customers recommend you. If they said yes, you can learn both what they value and think is worthy of mentioning and recommending and also what you do best that makes you worth recommending. I believe in focusing on your strengths and always working to keep them top notch, to do that, you have to know what your strengths are.

8. What are some of your favorite local businesses? Look at your clients' tastes and see if there are any patterns. Maybe some of their responses will offer opportunities for partnership. At the very least you can get a better handle on your target market and know their preferences.

9. Did I miss anything? You're not psychic. There might be something they're just waiting to tell you. Offer your customers the opportunity with this open ended question.

How do I make one?

There are tons of survey services out there for building out your customer satisfaction survey.

And by tons, I mean TONS. One of the best known is surveymonkey, my personal favorite is jotform. Do some research and make a list of possible contenders and compare their services. Most offer a free and a paid option and have strengths and weaknesses. Different ways of collecting the information, analytics tools, personalization options, etc. Research the one that fits your needs the best.

Can't find one? That can be ok. It might be a great inspiration to build your own solution. A survey is really a contact form with the appropriate questions, settings, and delivery options. If you don't have the time or energy to build one out, there might be a professional you can hire that will do it for you.

How should I send it out?

You have some options with this one and it depends on your business model and your customer relationships.

• Social Media - Do you spend most of your time communicating with your clients on social media? This might be your best way to send out a questionnaire every few weeks or months to get the pulse of your audience.

• Website - If your website is your hub and everyone has to come there to purchase or receive your product consider making a special page for your clients to go to fill out a survey. If you have a purchase flow a review/survey page would work nicely shortly after purchase.

• Email - An email is a personal touch that is harder to ignore. If you communicate with your clients via email you can place a survey in an email after your delivery or service or send out a newsletter every so often to new clients.

• Client Gallery - Do you deliver products via an online gallery? Maybe a survey placed right with the product you've delivered would keep it fresh in your client's mind and make this a great place to put the survey.

What do I do with all the information?

First off, store it securely. All information your client's provide should be secured somewhere private and according to the laws and regulations of your and your customers' regions.

Second, read through it carefully. Read over what they write and absorb it on an individual level. Every client took the time to write their thoughts so give them each personal attention. Consider going back and reading through older surveys once a year and comparing them to current ones to see how sentiment may be changing over time.

Third, aggregate it. Combine the responses into aggregate data that you can analyze in groups to look for patterns. Make lists of search terms to optimize for that appear most often. Look at your NPS score and watch it over time. Take ideas for improving your business. Accept your strengths and use them to grow your business or improve your sales strategy. Personally I aggregate the data and create data visualizations to help me interpret it all. Find your strategy to try and get the most out of your data.

Last Step

Send a thank you to every client that helps you!

Since they took the time to respond to your questions and be helpful, offer them a sincere thank you!

How do you learn about your clients' thoughts on your business? What questions do you ask that I might have missed?

#smallbusiness #runningyourbusiness #customerservice #gettingfeeback #microbusiness #solopreneurship #levelupyourbusiness #businessfeedback #customerfeedback #customersurveys #microbusinessgrowth #smallbusinessfeedback

Amazing Things Come in Small Packages! Microbusinesses and Solopreneurs...

What is a micro business? What is a Solopreneur?

Well according to the Small Business Administration (SBA) a micro business or micro enterprise is a small business with less then 10 employees. Some even define it as a business with only up to 5 employees. While small businesses can have dozens of employees and still fit the definition of small, micro businesses are truly "small".

Solopreneurs are business owners with no employees. They are the only owner and employee of the business. This doesn't mean they don't contract out for services from other professionals to help them along the way. But as far as actual employees go, they have none.

Micro businesses make up over 90% of all businesses in the United States, and solopreneurs or non-employer businesses make up 80% of all businesses in the US! That means there are over xx million micro businesses in the US and of those over 26 million are solopreneurs.

The vast majority of business owners are doing it alone or with a very small team!

So why does it matter?

Well for one, it helps to know you're not actually alone. You're the only one in your business, but you're one of millions. That means there are millions of other talented, amazing business owners going through the same struggles, the same lessons and the same wins as you.

It also matters because for years it felt like the business space wasn't for people like me. People that were doing it alone or had a small team. It felt as though this was just a transitional step on the way to something bigger. Or at least that's what all the news articles led me to believe! Every blog post I seemed to come across, would chastise me about how doing it alone is ok, but it's a job not a business. To be a real business you have to grow.

Well I'm here to say, that's complete crap! A business of one or two or three or four or five is a real business! In fact it's almost EVERY real business! And it counts. You are building something real, and you definitely, absolutely count!

Challenges Facing Micro Businesses

1. Resources & help is mostly targeted toward bigger small businesses - Most resources out there assume you either have several employees or plan to at some point. It makes it so much harder to keep going as you feel left out and alone. A good support network is so important to success. Don't worry, you're not alone! As I said above there are millions of other people in the same boat. And many of us are willing to work together, share information and grow together. The internet and social media have made it easier than ever to connect. Find some groups to support each other. Want one to start with? Check out my Facebook group Navigating the Entrepreneurship Journey.

2. Depending on just one client - Smaller businesses can get caught in a trap of having one or two really big clients and becoming dependent on that source of income. This puts them in a really dangerous position and threatens long-term success. To help avoid this, make sure you work on creating great relationships with your clients and asking for recommendations. When you deliver service, ask them to review you on whatever sites you get reviews (Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.) and to tell their friends. No matter how secure or busy you feel, don't stop posting on your social media, writing blog posts and reaching out. If you keep the marketing activity up when you're busy, it will help you find new clients when you get slower.

3. Burnout, fatigue and too many hats - This problem is so common for micro business owners and solopreneurs. And it makes perfect sense, because we're responsible for our entire business. It can get overwhelming! All the tasks big and small fall on your shoulders and it can burn you out. After all, you didn't get into business to do all the behind the scenes, you got into business to do what you love! There are so many resources available to help. Other small business owners offering their services as contractors. You can run more efficiently and contract out certain tasks. Tools made to standardize and automate your processes, so tasks get done automatically and you can focus on the bigger things. Make sure to incorporate the options available to you to free up your time for the parts only you can do!

4. Knowing when to grow & when not to - It seems like growing your business is the metric for success others have. The bigger your business, the more successful you are. But that is far from true! Success should be measured individually, by meeting goals that you have. Not by continuous growth for growth sake. In fact growth too fast, or when you were simply not ready, can lead to burnout, fatigue, bad customer experiences and negative reviews. You don't want any of that! It's important to take time periodically (as often as monthly or quarterly if your business is growing really fast or yearly or every few years if it's growing slower and depending on industry) to take time, breathe and evaluate. Are you ready to take on more? Can you afford the costs in time and money associated with the growth? Will it help you achieve not just your business goals, but your personal goals? It's ok to stop and say, no more growth right now. We're going to stay right where we are. It's ok to feel happy where you are and take the time to grow in other areas of your life. And it's ok to just breathe!

5. Getting lonely - If you're the only one running and operating your business, it can get super lonely! Especially as more and more business interactions move to the internet. Not only are you making decisions with no sounding board, but some days you may not see other human beings at all. And while your furry companion might be cute and all, it can get stressful. Join some local and internet based business groups. Especially ones focusing on similar topics that interest you. They don't need to be in the same industry, but perhaps a similar general category. These groups can help you grow as a business owner, learn new skills, build a network and stay focused on ways to keep improving. Not to mention you may just make some lifelong friends.

Tips for Making it as a Micro Business!

Now that we covered some of the challenges, and some ways to address them, let's chat about some ways to make sure you're successful. About 50% of businesses survive past 5 years. These tips (some of which might seem an awful lot like solutions to the challenges above 😉) will hopefully help you be in that 50%!

1. Avoid debt - I know this sounds hard. And I'm not entirely opposed to debt. But! And this is a huge but, most businesses are better off avoiding debt in their first few years. If at all possible, save up money, spend carefully, and make sure you set aside the appropriate amount for taxes and reinvesting in your business. Most micro businesses can be started with just a few hundred dollars. And as you start to make some money you should be reinvesting back into the business. Which in turn will help you make more money, etc. To really make this work you need to make sure to invest carefully and really weigh your options! If you can't avoid debt, for example, if you need to buy some expensive equipment to get started, make sure you prioritize paying down the debt as you bring in income. Look for dept options that are the lowest interest rate possible (some credit cards or credit lines are 0% interest if you pay it off within a certain time-frame), as this will help minimize the impact of the debt. And consult with your accounting about appropriately depreciating and writing off the expense!

2. Build a network and learn from each other - Running a business by yourself can get super lonely and exhausting. Not to mention, unlike a typical job, you don't necessarily have people to bounce ideas off of. Instead of going at it completely alone, try to find a network of business friends! Whether online groups, or in person meet-ups find a tribe. This network will be extremely helpful in succeeding. You can offer advice to each other. Be there when things get tough. Learn together. Support each other. And so much more. Not to mention when you surround yourself with people who have similar goals to your own, you both remind each other why you started on the path in the first place and help each other reach your goals! Looking for a group to offer support? Check out my Facebook group Navigating the Entrepreneurship Journey.

3. Get feedback often - The best way to make sure you're successful and can keep improving is to always ask for feedback! This has a few benefits. First, you'll learn what you need to fix, quickly. If you offer clients and friends the opportunity to tell you what's going wrong early, you can correct it sooner, rather than later. Second, if you get great feedback, you can use it as reviews and it will help inform future clients and fill them with confidence in your service!

4. Hire other business owners for help - Just because you're a shop of one or only a couple, doesn't mean you can't get a bit more help! You don't need to have an accountant, lawyer and IT person on staff. But you should find other local, small businesses offering these services and get help from professionals who can help make your business safer and more efficient. While you will need to wear many hats in your business, you don't need to learn every, single skill required in the smooth operation of a business. Let someone be the expert in their field so you can be the expert in yours and spend your time doing what you love and are great at!

5. Find the right tools & create automation - Another tip to save you time and make your business more efficient is to find the right tools that will cut your work and help you be more consistent and efficient. You don't need to write out every email by hand! Create beautiful templates and make sure responses to people who contact you from your website are personalized but automated to collect all the information you need before you have a call. Create online scheduling tools to give clients more options and save yourself time scheduling every appointment by hand. Create systems for inventory, contracts and other processes to keep your business consistent. The best way to create great service and get great reviews is to make sure every client has the same, consistent, great experience. Curious how I do it? Here's my toolbox of favorite tools and resources as well as tools and courses I offer!

Do you run a micro business? Are you a solopreneur? What's been your biggest challenge? Do you have any tips for success? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! #smallbusiness #microbusiness #solopreneur #tipsforsuccess #microbusinesschallenges #solopreneurchallenges #solopreneurtips #microbusinesstips