Page 77 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

YOUR CUSTOMERS ALL HAVE
SOMETHING

IN COMMON, BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO
DO

WITH OLD-SCHOOL CATEGORIES.

“Business opportunities are like buses;
there’s always another one coming.”

—RICHARD BRANSON

The frequent references to customers and clients lead to a good question: Who

are they? And just as important, where are they and how do you find them? As
you consider these questions, it may help to fit your ideal customers into
traditional demographics—things such as age, gender, income—or it may not.

While I was writing my first book, different people in the publishing industry
asked me about the “target market” for the community that was rapidly growing.
I’d been in business for a while, so I knew what they meant, but I couldn’t figure
out how to explain the diverse group of people who read my blog. We had
artists, travelers, high school students trying to decide whether to go to college
or strike out on their own, retired people making plans for a new chapter in their
lives, and everyone in between. There were a number of entrepreneurs and self-
employed folks but also a lot of people in traditional jobs. The gender ratio was
split almost evenly between men and women.