Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup

STEP 2

Select a Beachhead Market

IN THIS STEP, YOU WILL:

• Analyze your top 6–12 market opportunities and choose one to pursue.
• Further segment that market to determine your beachhead market.

Selecting a beachhead market is part of the critical process of narrowing your focus and attention to one critical area of attack.

In the previous step on market segmentation, you built a matrix based on your primary market research on your top 6–12 markets. Now, select just one market opportunity from the matrix to pursue as your beachhead market; ignore the other markets.

Almost all first-time entrepreneurs find that ignoring market opportunities is difficult and even painful. They doggedly hold on to the idea that more markets increases their odds of success and that they are best off hedging their bets until one market takes off.

In fact, such thinking will decrease your odds of success, because you and your new enterprise will lack the necessary focus required to succeed. A key determinant ...