Your Ideal Clients are NOT who you think they are!

Hey, folks, it's Kimberly Hobshad with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. I'm actually coming to you from a place that's a little chillier than normal. I'm in Vancouver, Canada today and I wanted to chat with you a little bit about how to really be able to hone in on who your ideal client is. Because I know a lot of folks have been having difficulty with that. The first thing I want to say is that your ideal client should be able to be recapped in about two to three words, tops. They are really clear titles and they usually don't have a lot of adjectives or descriptive words in them. It should be a title where people can self identify whether they are one or not. And not only that, whether or not their friends are one or not, or the people that they know or the people in their community or the people in their group are one or not. So what you don't want to say is people who are seekers, who are looking for the fifth level or the fifth dimension of their chakra vibration, because not only do people oftentimes not know that that's them, they also don't know who in their community that they could refer you to. You want something a little more tight, a little more clean, where you can say, I serve these kind of people. And then that way not only do people know if they are those kind of people, but they also know if they can refer you to somebody. So some great examples of things that do work really well are entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, authors. That is who this community serves. Another great title would be like fourth grade teachers or 40 to 50 year old women. Or sometimes.

They can be in age range and sometimes they can be descriptive of where they're physically located. So for example, you might say, I help San Diego hikers if you have something that's specific to a location, if it's online or if it's larger than that, then you wouldn't necessarily want to put a location, unless you really serve only those people that are in that particular community. So you want to think about like whether or not people would be able to self identify. So if you said, I'm looking for San Diego hikers, for example, I would raise my hand. But if you say I'm looking for fourth grade teachers, I would not raise my hand. However, I know several fourth grade teachers, so I might be able to refer you to somebody else. So when you're looking for your niche, you definitely want to be able to find out like what their title is. Now if you really don't know Your niche, you're not alone. There's a lot of entrepreneurs who are like, I kind of think I serve, you know, I kind of, I believe that I serve everyone. I believe that I serve, you know, females or I believe I serve all children or something like that. And you really want to narrow it down a little bit more. Why? Not because you're trying to exclude people, but because you become a specialist and once you become a specialist, then you can serve that niche extremely well and people will hone in on it and know that you serve them in particular. Another good example is I help bakery store owners or something like that. Now if you are a bakery store owner, you'll say, wow, this person could really help me. If you are not a bakery store owner, but you know one, you can definitely refer them to somebody else who is a bakery store owner. But what's interesting is other store owners, like coffee shop owners or donut shop owners or things like that may come to you anyway because they'll say things like, hey, I know you normally serve only bakery shop owners, but I have a question. I think you might be able to help me. So even though you're niching down and you're narrowing down a little bit now, not too much. You're not saying, you know, I'm serving NASA, former NASA astronauts, because there aren't too many of those in the world, but if you are serving a smaller niche, you're going to be able to serve them extremely well because you know their pains and frustrations and challenges. Now that's the next level is once you have your title down, what you really want to dig into is asking those people questions by doing a little market research, finding out what their pains and their frustrations and their aggravations are day to day so that you can really serve them the best you possibly can. Alright? So that, and if you are still unsure what your niche is or what who you really serve, two things that you can do. Number one, figure out who is already paying you, right? If you already have a product or service, figure out who's already writing you checks or who's ever already given you their credit card. In today's day and age, how many people write checks anymore? But if you have a, if you have customers already, take a look at them and see who they are. And if they are, you know, women over 40 or they're hikers or they're fourth grade teachers, then that may be your niche. But another thing to think about after you've gotten, gotten, who's actually paying you is whether or not you are enjoying working with those people. So it may be, for example, I love working with millennials. Some of you know that really well. I absolutely love working with millennials because for me, they're very open minded, they're very coachable, they have a kind of a zest for life. But there's plenty of other people who have that as well. So I might not niche down to millennial entrepreneurs. I just happen to love working with them. So. But if I did have a product or service that was only for millennial entrepreneurs, I would actually sell it that way. All right, folks, I'm Kimberly Hobbschad with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. Hey, I'm not sure if you already have a business coach or somebody that's a mentor or a guide, somebody that can help you through the murky waters of working in entrepreneurship and living a life where you travel and have time, freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom. I would love to work with you. Go to entrepreneursrocketfuel.com apply, fill out an application, and you and I will get on the phone and find out what program might be able to get you to the next level. Now, whatever that is, we're going to talk about that and talk about where you are and where you want to be and see if we can get you to the next level. All right, folks, I'm Kimberly Hobscheid with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and I look forward to working with you. Cheers.