After I published 3 Clues You're Picking a Fantasy (Instead of a Real Target Market), I got some reader questions. 

One reader was particularly interested in this idea:

She asked: Can repackaging the same services, just to a different market, really be the same as starting a whole new business? 

The short answer? Yes. 

Every time you change target markets, you have to start over. 

• New marketing materials to appeal to this new audience
• Brand-new network of potential clients and business partners
• More research on their industry and needs

Sometimes you have to change target markets. This is really rare. Sometimes it makes sense to adjust your vision, but not change it entirely - this is usually narrowing in on a smaller slice of your niche.

Many people fall into the trap of changing their entire purpose for the excitement of it.

Some people find themselves changing their target market multiple times per year. 

If you're one of those people, you're truly robbing yourself of the best aspects of business ownership. Instead of feeling the benefits of being your own boss, doing work you love for clients who appreciate you, and building your personal empire -- you're just getting the infatuation (and hair-on-fire stress) of change. 

Changing target markets frequently is like signing up for a marathon, but jogging over to every interesting 5K race you see... and then feeling discouraged because you ran 3.6 miles and you're no closer to the marathon finish line. You might run a lot of interesting 5Ks that way, but you're never going to cross the marathon finish line unless you stay the course. 

So WHY do people change their target markets all the time? 

1. Scared that they'll get bored with their current market
2. Think it's easier to switch target markets than to work on their own flaws
3. Don't get the immediate enthusiastic response they were hoping for
4. Not passionate about their audience and are trying to find the spark by switching 
5. Feel their natural/instinctual choices are "too easy"  
6. Afraid they'll get pigeon-holed into a market and won't be able to evolve over time 
7. Not sure there are enough people in the target audience to sustain a business 
8. Approaching business like casual dating, instead of like marriage
9. Have more fun picking out visual branding and researching than actually working on their business 

I told a story last time about the guy who changes target markets radically, from fitness to real estate to agriculture to who knows what's next.

Today, I'll tell you a story of a more subtle (but still detrimental) series of shifts. 

A gal came to me to find out why she couldn't get her business off the ground. She wanted to be in the personal development field, helping people heal emotionally and find their purpose. She was caring and interesting, but couldn't seem to attract the right clients - clients who appreciated her, were willing to pay her price (and on time), and who were fulfilling to work with. So she switched target markets every 3-6 months.

She knew she connected best with middle-aged women, but was always tweaking the rest of the profile (and re-doing all of her marketing materials every time). First, single women. Then, white collar professional women. Next, women who love yoga. Then, childless and empty-nester women. Every time, she struggled to attract any volume of clients and definitely didn't feel fulfilled by working with them. 

You know who she really connected with, though? Women recovering from abuse.

But she didn't want to target that audience! She felt it was "too easy" because it was what she knew best. She was concerned that it was unethical to have an emotionally vulnerable target market. She was afraid of being pigeon-holed as "The Abuse Woman." When she talked to her friends about her idea, they got uncomfortable and didn't give her the response she expected. 

Here's what I told her:

• The "too easy" market is exactly the right market. You should never voluntarily choose a difficult target market. If it's "too easy," that means you understand them.  
• If you're aware of the ethical concerns of serving that audience, you might be the right person to serve it. Would you rather than need in the marketplace be filled with someone who doesn't have the same attention and care, while you're off pursuing a more difficult market you don't even like?
• What looks like a pigeon-hole to some people looks like an amazingly carved niche to others. If you love that audience and you love your work, you're not stuck - you're planted.  
• Don't give credence to people's opinions if they're outside your target market. Your friends, your mom, your spouse... If they aren't your target audience, it doesn't matter if they personally find value in your idea. 

Picking the right target market - and sticking to it - is the key to building and growing your strong business. 

Thanks for reading! Do you have more questions about target markets? Send me a message on Facebook. ​

Some business owners know their current customers aren't quite the right market. They don't pay enough, they don't appreciate enough, they're just plain wrong for your business.

And then you might start to fantasize about who the right customer might be. More education, more wealth, a different profession, a different industry... Anything besides what you have right now. 

The problem is when you've never actually served anyone like that - or worse, never even met people in your target market. 

It's like someone in a fading romance. When they look their partner, they see just the flaws. They don't have the passion anymore. So they start to imagine someone new: someone who looks different, has different interests, makes more money, whatever. They build up this binary: THAT fantasy, not THIS reality. 

But then, they break up with their current flame and try to find this mythical creature they've imagined. Most people are either unable to find that fantasy (if you don't know anybody wealthy/educated/interesting yet, then it's a lot harder to find someone like that to pursue) OR they realize their fantasy but find themselves back in the same bland place because the problem was the way they conduct relationships, not their former partner. 

I know someone who is always changing up his target market. Sometimes it's fitness professionals, sometimes it's real estate agents, sometimes it's nonprofit executives. No matter what market he pursues, he ends up with the same problems: he struggles to find clients, and the ones he does find are low quality (won't pay on time,  don't appreciate his work, etc.). And then the cycle starts again with fantasies of a new type of client who will make his business dreams come true. Recently, he decided to settle on agriculture-related industries. He knows other people have success in that market and he thinks he can, too. 

If he asked me, these are the things I'd ask him to consider before pulling yet another sharp turn onto a new path:

• Do you know anyone in this industry? 
• Do you read about this industry already? Do you know what's happening in their market? 
• Do you want to go to this industry's trade shows, conferences, events, and meet-ups? 

If you don't know anyone in the industry you're considering targeting, that means you'll need to break in from scratch. It's tough to break into a new market - that's why college kids do internships. It'll mean a lot of legwork just to meet these people. 

If you're not already reading about the industry, it's going to require a lot of research to get up to speed -- and possibly meaning you'll burn your first few interactions by not being knowledgable enough. 

If you don't care about their events, you might not be interested in what they do. 

And if you're not interested enough to know people in the industry, read about it, or go to their events, do you really want to be around them every day in your business? 

In short, these are clues that you're chasing a fantasy instead of fixing what's in front of you. 

What will happen when this guy lands his agriculture client? Will it be the client of his dreams? Probably not. It'll more than likely be someone who doesn't care if their service provider is knowledgable, someone who values the cheaper price of inexperience, or someone who is just overall a mediocre fit. It could just be that he doesn't really know how to run his business, so the problem is with him, not the clients. ​

If you radically change target markets, you're essentially starting a whole new business. And you've experienced the same problems with more than one industry, then the problem might not be with your target market at all - it could be something in your business holding you back. 

Instead of fantasy choosing your ideal client, the best target audience profile comes from people you already know and like (and preferably, have worked with before). Here's a post about how to figure out who your target market should be. ​

My tip was featuring in Business News Daily's new article about business presentations. 

Read the other 34 tips here. 

Virtual Freedom: How To Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business is a guide to outsourcing tasks to virtual assistants: anything that costs you less to outsource than to do yourself (taking your billable hourly rate as what your time is worth). 

This same philosophy is what Donald Trump credits his fortune with - he says he outsources anything that costs less than $100 an hour. Ducker lists things like:

• research website keywords or blog post topics
• respond to customer emails
• invoicing
• create web content or translate existing content into new formats (like turning blog posts into slideshows)
• post your content on social media

and then recommends using that saved time to build your business. It's solid advice - in my experience, many entrepreneurs have never thought about outsourcing tasks they hate or find menial. 

Ducker's book would more aptly be called Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Build Your Dream Lifestyle. His advice isn't just for productivity or time management, it's about doing more of the things you like and less of the things you hate. 

I bought this book because I enjoy Chris Ducker's blog. I hoped the book would be like a really long, in-depth post - and I was partially right. Each chapter reads like a stand-alone blog post, which makes it easily digestible. However, it also means he repeats the same information over and over and over - including highly-specific info like public holidays in the Philippines or reminding you not to use all-caps when writing to your assistant. 

Perhaps my biggest beef with his book is his push for hiring overseas. (I will admit that I could be biased because I'm USA-based and my clients outsource their marketing to me instead of overseas.) "Section 4: Stay Local or Go Overseas?" promises to be a chapter weighing the pros and cons, but quickly turns into building the case for overseas outsourcing, highlighting the benefits of lower wages and cultures which are eager to please their bosses. 

While you may pay higher prices to keep your assistant(s) in your own community, you're also keeping your dollars in your local economy. I think that's a valuable thing which shouldn't be glossed over in favor of lower costs. It's something entrepreneurs should consider against their value system - especially because many small business owners take pride in being ultra-local. 

Overall, the book is a decent overview for the entrepreneur who has never outsourced a task and needs advice on affordable solutions. 

Workbook Review: Virtual Freedom Companion 

The companion workbook is $27 and contains 36 pages (including cover, intro letter, table of contents). 

Possibly the most valuable pages are the "Lists to Freedom," where you are instructed to brainstorm on the tasks you should outsource. These pages are mostly instructions with just a few blank lines for your brainstorming. Ducker distills a chapter from his book into 3 pages for the workbook, and the content is much better in this format. 

The next element, taking up the bulk of the workbook, is "10 Elements to a Good Job Description." Each element takes a page, and honestly, almost none of them need a whole page (like "time zone")... especially when Ducker's example for the element is only a sentence. 

The following nine pages are a guide to interviewing, complete with an assessment sheet for the interview. There's nothing groundbreaking in this section - you could find all the same information (albeit not in worksheet form) on any hiring website. A whole page is dedicated to "your questions" (meaning: blank). 

Six pages outline a monthly/quarterly performance review containing basic questions like "How well does the employee understand his role?" and "Are you happy with your employee's performance?" It's a decent start to a performance review, but there's no instructions on what to do with it once you have it. (And if you need a worksheet this basic, you probably also need a little instruction on how to use it.)

Finally, the last few pages contain a timeline and list of tasks for the business owner diving into outsourcing for the first time. By the end of six months, Ducker's timeline has you hiring two virtual assistants and taking a week off from your daily business management. 

If you like having the convenience of a basic hiring kit in one PDF, it might be worth the cost. But if you're ok with using Google for a minute to find basic hiring information, don't bother with the workbook. 

Angry Birds started as an addictive game. Seemingly overnight, Angry Birds merchandise was everywhere – from T-Mobile commercials to Target end cap displays.

Though Rovio (the game company which owns Angry Birds) has a large budget and big dreams, the small business owner can learn valuable lessons.

1.       Angry Birds is easy to play

Anyone can download the app and get started playing. There’s no instruction manual and no rules to explain.

Takeaway: Simplify your customer’s experience.

2.       Angry Birds is addictive

The first time I downloaded Angry Birds, I played for six hours straight – until 4 a.m. Each level in Angry Birds is straightforward: Kill all the pigs with the least amount of birds possible. Players will redo levels until they get a three-star rating for excellent strategy.

Takeaway: Tell your customers exactly what to do, and be consistent.

3.       Angry Birds can be played in short bursts

On the bus, in line at the grocery store, or while waiting for the movie to start – Angry Birds can be played for as long or short as the user wants.

Takeaway: Consistently release content meant for quick digestion. 

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“I want to market my business, but I don’t know what to say.”

This is the most common thing I hear small business owners say. They know why they have a business – - usually based on a personal passion or a problem they identified in the community — but they don’t know how to express it.

The key to finding your marketing voice is to think about why you do what you do.

It’s not easy to own a business. Many people have dreams of entrepreneurship but they can’t make the leap from a steady paycheck and a known future. When you work in corporate America, the path is clear: climb the ladder until you retire.

With your own business, the path isn’t as clear cut. No one gives you a promotion in your own business. You might want to expand your business or make more money as the basis for your marketing plan. A higher profit margin or an expanded product line is a goal, not a marketing voice. Your voice doesn’t change with your goals.

Connect with the original feeling which inspired you to take the leap.

Here are some of the feelings my clients have expressed:

• Life coach: “I want to help people become who they always wanted to be.”
• Yoga teacher: “I want to make physical fitness fun and affordable.”
• Personal trainer: “I want to help people to recover faster from injuries and chronic pain.”
• Financial planner: “I want people to feel like they’re in control of their checkbook.”
• Hair stylist: “I want women to feel great in their own skin.”
• Writer’s club: “I want to provide a safe space for writers to express themselves and find support.”
• Church: “I want to create a community gathering space for people who are seeking something bigger than themselves.”
• Health education nonprofit: “I want people to love their bodies.”

Look again at the simplicity of those statements. At the core of your motivation for being an entrepreneur, you probably have a simple statement, too. You might have thought of it as a mission statement or a guiding principle.

This is the place to find your marketing voice.