Who are my potential customers?
The short answer is that your potential customers are anybody who could use your business. So if you’re a painter and decorator it’s anyone who needs this service, or if you’re opening a convenience store it’s anyone who shops with you. If you’re going to really understand what your customers want you’ll need to spend time thinking about who they are.
It’s worth remembering that different groups of people want different things. Let’s say you’re running a convenience store – you’ll sell papers and drinks to commuters in the morning, comics and sweets after school has finished and drinks and snacks for people who want a night in. Each group will want different products and you’ll use different methods to communicate with them. Breaking your market down like this will help you develop a much clearer understanding of who you’re going to sell to so that you can think about how. We call this process market segmentation.