An email with the subject “3 Questions To Help You Choose A Target Market” arrived in my inbox. Jonathan Stark, an expert in helping consultants package and sell their expertise whose resources I’ve been relying on heavily as a new business owner, sent the email.
Attracting clients gets a lot easier once you decide which ones you want to attract.
Not sure who you want to attract?
Here are a few questions to get your gears turning…
- What kinds of people do you like spending time with?
- What kinds of businesses would you like to see succeed?
- What kinds of conferences would you be excited to attend?
I went to the esplanade near my place, sat on a bench with my notebook and iced coffee, and answered these 3 questions. The answers probably sound murky to you, but it’s the clearest I’ve ever gotten (so far). Filling these out felt exciting, like I could feel the universe watching me and its wheels were turning.
Since attracting clients gets easier once you decide which ones you want to attract, leveraging public accountability and sharing these will be even more powerful. I hope. A former colleague told me that my post about my 20 article headlines (and promise to write a new one every week) inspired her to create an accountability group for LinkedIn writers, so here I am, sharing some more ✨ Who knows what conversations this might start?!
What kinds of people do you like spending time with?
- Smart
- Genuine
- Strong ethics
- Curious
- Passionate
- Work hard, play hard
- Believe people are inherently good
- Take their work seriously, but not themselves
What kinds of businesses would you like to see succeed?
- Solving waste, fighting overconsumption (Too Good To Go, Vinted, Ruggable)
- Public libraries
- Increasing ease of access to historically inaccessible fields/products like healthcare, financial planning, legal aid, entrepreneurship (Alma, SimplePractice, Headway, Wealthsimple, QuickBooks)
- Helping people have more off-screen fun through nature, friendships, travel, museums, sports (AllTrails, FitnessBlender, iNaturalist, Timeleft, Bumble BFF, Playtomic, Meetup, Strava, Booking.com)
- Getting more people into meditation and spirituality (InsightTimer, Calm, Practice.do)
- Small businesses focused on quality (garments, craftsmanship, client relationships)
- Helping people learn (Duolingo, Chess.com, Wikipedia)
- Making things easier and quicker to do (Zapier, Calendly, Canva, Bitwarden, Notion)
- Simplifying contact between people in different countries and continents (FaceTime, WhatsApp, Remitly)
- Pushing for more intentional lives (Marie Forleo, Marie Kondo, Never Too Small)
*There’s also a big chunk of what I like to work on that can’t fit neatly into a category or type of business I’d like to see succeed. The big chunk includes information-heavy, multi-step, complicated workflows in platforms/apps/websites. I’d like to see end users win here. I can help with that through my information architecture services, reducing complexity through clear terminology and content organization for enterprise software, state-of-the-art products (vision AI, LLMs, robotics), music platforms (millions of items and different ways to categorize/show them).
What kinds of conferences would you be excited to attend?
- Sustainability through tech and design
- Button (content design conference)
- Tech for good in government and non-profits
- UX wins in non-tech fields (photography, chairs, plant-based food, notebooks, beauty salon experiences, luxury items, car racing)
Thanks Jonathan for the prompt!
To paraphrase Austin Kleon, sharing increases your chances of lucky events happening to you.
“Sellout . . . I’m not crazy about that word. We’re all entrepreneurs. To me, I don’t care if you own a furniture store or whatever—the best sign you can put up is SOLD OUT.”
American singer-songwriter Bill Withers
If you’re connected with someone who’s the kind of person I like spending time with and works for one of the types of companies I’d like to see succeed, I’d love an introduction 👋 Say hi at hi@littlelanguagemodels.com.
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