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18 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

short, version of this in The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building your Career, Langdon,
Capstone, 2000.

So now let's get on with the details.

Idea 8 - Choose your markets wisely

However obvious this may seem, spend a bit of time in considering who will buy
your products and services. Now try and group them in some way. It may make
sense to think about large and small customers, or ones that are nationwide, and
those who only operate close to home. Only you can organise a sensible grouping. A
contractor in the building trade, for example, may think about their customers as:

• end-user customers;
• consultants such as architects; and
• other contractors and sub-contractors.

The point of this grouping is to identify later on in the process where greater oppor-
tunities lie and where better margins and profits can be found. This may mean that
you will start off looking for the easiest business just to get some sales, but with an
emphasis in your selling and marketing on another market group who, once you
have cracked into it, will give you better profits or larger contracts.

Even at this stage there is a point to dreaming a bit. It may seem far-fetched to
consider a major nationwide builder as a prospect at this time, but who knows in the
future? Write it down; once a great idea is documented it can never be lost. Remem-
ber while you are at this planning stage that dreams are about the unknown as well
as the known. Indeed it is axiomatic that following your dreams will take you in
unexpected directions.

A lot of small businesses start on the back of one customer. If this is the case
with yours, don't let that be an excuse for missing out this section of the plan or for