If You Could Rethink Your Business, What Would You Change?

A New Year is starting, so for many people its a time to reflect and think about what they'd like to change in their business. In this episode, I'll talk about refining your market segment - or more spcifically, focusing in on exaclty what type of customer you want. Importantly, I'll give you some critical factors to consider that most people dont think about.

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What is The Business Coach?

This podcast is for small to medium business owners. You've got a lot to gain, a lot to lose, and business is tough; there's a lot at stake. Business acumen is what every business owner needs, it will make a profound difference to your business.

This podcast will cover marketing, positioning, branding, lead generation, selling, negotiating, customer service, managing staff, managing finances and accounts and much more.

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If you could rethink your business… what would you change?
A new year is starting.

Yes, I know—the business year technically starts on July 1, but that’s really just a tax thing. For the rest of us normals, a new year is rolling around, and that usually means a pause… a bit of breathing space… and then those familiar thoughts creep in.

What would I like to change this year?

Call them New Year’s resolutions if you like.

One of my favourite thinking tools—drum roll please—is the blank sheet of paper.

When you’re thinking about any part of your business, I want you to ask yourself:

“If I could start again, how would I do this differently?”

Just let yourself imagine it. No constraints. No sunk costs.

I find this especially powerful when rethinking structure—who does what—and marketing - more specifically: who you’re actually going after as a customer.

So today, let’s talk about your ideal customer.

And to do that, I want to go right back to basics.

I’ve mentioned in previous episodes my theory that most businesses—and therefore most of your competitors—are probably not charging enough.

My suspicion? They haven’t really done their numbers or built a proper profit model.
Instead, they look around, see what everyone else is charging… and copy it.

But here’s the problem.

The businesses they copied probably made the same mistake.

So if you charge what your competitors charge, don’t be surprised when there’s not much left over at the end.

Now let’s talk about what I’ll call rich customers versus poor customers.

This doesn’t necessarily mean individuals—it could just as easily be small businesses versus medium or large organisations.

Think about it this way:

For a small customer, what you charge might represent a big chunk of their budget.

For a larger customer, that exact same price might be almost irrelevant in proportion.

So what do poor customers care about?

Usually, price.

And how do you achieve lower prices?

Through scale. You need to be very large.

Take Netflix as an extreme example. They spend around $18 billion a year creating content—and yet they charge us about $18 a month. That works because they operate at massive scale.

A small business simply can’t compete like that.

Now let’s flip it.

What do rich customers care about?

Typically: time, risk, and effort.

They might try to play the price game at first—but that usually stops once they realise that “cheap” often ends up costing them far more.

By time, I mean how quickly their supplier responds.

By risk, I mean the chance the job doesn’t get done properly—or at all.

And by effort, I mean how much work the client has to do just to make things happen. In other words: how easy are you to do business with?

So when you put all of this together, if you’re a small to medium business, the conclusion is often pretty clear.

You need to charge more—for two reasons.

First, because you deserve to make a proper living and a reasonable profit.

And second, because you simply don’t have the scale to compete on price.

And if that’s true, then it follows that you probably want to work with rich customers—because they’re often happy to pay more.

Which means it also follows that you need to focus on what they care about.

And we’re right back to time, risk, and effort.

So if you’re thinking about what you’d like to change in the coming year, here’s a question to sit with:

What does your ideal customer actually look like—and what needs to change in your business to truly delight them?

Plenty of food for thought.

And as always, if you want to chat or bounce ideas around, get in touch.