Before anything else in your business, you need to know who is your target market if you want to attract clients. Fish where the fish are, will save you time and money and will maximize you networking results.

One of the biggest misconceptions that solo-entrepreneurs have is that they expect to sell to everyone and anyone. This misconception creates a huge problem across the board. At networking events when I ask “Who is your target market?” to understand better how I can help someone, a lot of people answer “everybody, really, my products/services can serve everybody”.

Each time I hear this answer I tend to lose interest in the conversation because I know that those people have no clue on how to market their business. You are setting yourself up for major disappointment if you expect to make money employing this way. Attending networking events, talking to everyone about your services no matter what their needs, is not going to provide you with results. And frankly, I’m tired of hearing that sheep.

The very first step when you start a business is to determine your niche and target market. You build your list based on people, businesses who have use for your products. You are not going to convince anyone who has no need for your product to become a client.Unfortunately, too many people continue to get frustrated, not knowing why their business is failing; because heck, they have a huge list, they include everyone, there must be someone out there who wants their product! If you try to sell to anyone and everyone you’re just letting go of a balloon into the air expecting that someone will catch it, but up it goes and eventually disappears into the sky. When it lands it’s deflated and out of air. You’re suffocating your business!

Know your target market. Create your marketing tools, websites, business cards, flyers, postcards, articles, blogs, newsletters, etc, directed at your target market’s interests. When your contacts see your materials, they will know you took the time to make something for them, something that will solve their problems; and you will become the person they look to for guidance when they need it most. You become The Solution.

Recently someone contacted me via a LinkedIn message with the title “We need your help!”. After exchanging a couple of introductory emails he explained his company’s problems. When I asked him what motivated him to pick up the phone when I rang his answer was “I saw various of your post on Linkedin, read some of your articles online, checked your blog, and you definitely seem to know what you are talking about regarding a business through networking, and that is exactly what we need right now.”

All of my material, articles, tweets or blog posts, are about networking. I explain what issues my target market has and how my knowledge and expertise can solve them. When people see the consistency of my marketing tools they come looking for me; I don’t have to go looking for clients. Create your marketing materials, your solutions, your pitch at your prospective client base and they will recognize themselves and decide to work with you and nobody else.