Small Business Mistake: Attracting anyone and everyone to your business
A popular mistake small business owners make, is the dreaded “must work with anyone and everyone” attitude.
And coaches are particularly notorious for this!
When you are in the early stages of starting up your own business and your diary is empty, it is easy to fall in to this trap. I know I did when I first started up as a Life Coach back in 2004. There I was, a newly accredited life coach believing the world was my oyster and thinking that my coaching skills could work on anyone.
And I wasn’t wrong with this assumption. Anyone who has been coached or is involved with coaching will be sure to agree. But when it comes to business and marketing, this approach is the kiss of death.
Believing that you are there to help anyone and everyone who could do with your services is just like standing on the street corner of your local high street. Every person from every walk of life could pass you by and you merrily hand out your business cards and beautifully designed leaflets to them all.
But how many people will stop and read what you have shoved in to their hands? How many will glance down and plan to read it later [but never do]? And how many will just drop in to the next litter bin that they pass on by?
If you were to do this to a thousand people, the chances are that maybe – just maybe – one person may be interested in what you have to offer. And to spend the time and money attracting that one person is frankly hard work. I know I would rather run the London Marathon wearing a ridiculous charity costume [and probably cross the finish line quicker!]
So if you are making this mistake of trying to attract anyone and everyone, save yourself months of hard work and hundreds of pounds of printing and make a decision on who exactly you want to work with. I promise you that your marketing will be far more effective and you will be attracting far more client enquires by only reaching out to a fraction of the global marketplace.
Other articles you may be interested in:
- 7 Steps to Attracting New Clients to Your Business
- The 5 Marketing Rules for Small Business Owners in 2009
3 Responses to “Small Business Mistake: Attracting anyone and everyone to your business”
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I do agree with you however, sometimes I feel that getting the brand/logo ‘out there’ means that in the future, when someone is looking for say…baby signing classes (!)…and are scanning the local directories/magazines then my logo/brand will jump out at them. I have no proof if this is correct but feel sure it is right.
I do do targeted marketing and the group I am aiming at is pretty well defined but, again, in my line of work someone may see my flyer/poster/ad/facebook post who doesn’t have a baby but they will mention it to their daughter/friend/work colleague – so, again, it may be worth spreading my net a bit.
However, over all I do agree with you!
[Reply]
Miriam Reply:
October 12th, 2011 at 12:01 am
PS – I run TinyTalk baby signing classes and you can find out more about my classes here! http://www.tinytalk.co.uk/miriamf
PPS – feel free to delete this if I am being too cheeky!
[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
October 12th, 2011 at 9:52 am
Hi Miriam – thanks for stopping by with your thoughts and of course, please leave your links here
When someone leaves quality comments and adds to my blog posts, I am delighted to let some self promotion!
It’s an interesting point you have raised. The problems with getting your brand “out there” is that you can’t measure it. How do you do what is working so you can stop what doesn’t and do more of what does. “I have no proof” – exactly!!
If you are doing directory/mag advertising, at least use trackable phone numbers and website addresses – you will know what works until you do and you could end up wasting an awful lot of money, as well as energy and motivation!
[Reply]