Debbie LaChusa

When I first opened my consulting practice, I decided I wanted to work with the "little guy." You know him ... the guy (or gal) who can't afford to hire an agency to do his marketing for him. The guy who, like me, was passionate about his own business but just wasn't sure how or where to market.

Know what I found out? Not only can that guy not afford to hire an agency, he also can't afford marketing. Which is insane because I don't know of too many businesses who can survive without marketing. Granted there are a lot of ways you can market for free or for very low cost, but if you don't know what those ways are, or even understand the basics of how to target the proper clients and create your single-focused marketing message, then you're still going to struggle.

After awhile I realized that even though I wanted to help this "little guy" if he didn't have the money to pay for my services, my business wasn't going to survive very long. What did I do? Well, for one, I realized that all clients aren't necessarily good clients. I needed to identify the best clients were my offerings, and that meant clients who not only needed my services but also those who could afford them. Secondly, I created information products and coaching programs for those "little guys" that couldn't afford to hire me. After all, they still needed marketing help, They just needed a very inexpensive way to get started.

Take a look at who you're targeting as clients and ask yourself two questions: 1) Do they have a compelling need for your services? And, 2) can they afford your services? If you can't answer these two questions with a definitive "YES" then you may need to re-think who you're marketing to. Or, you may need to create different product or service offerings to better meet their needs.