The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

You Can’t Boil the Ocean

Once you’re comfortable with the size of your market and the potential opportunity, it’s time to drill down and focus on one or two segments of the market with the highest potential. Even if everyone under the sun is a potential customer, you have the resources to focus on only one or two core segments. You can’t boil the ocean. If you want to build a social network of moms, for example, the best way to start is would be to target just one type of mom—like soccer moms—instead of all moms.

Your instinct will probably resist this—after all, aren’t you limiting your chances for success? Don’t think of it this way. People buy from companies they know and trust. Getting people to know and trust your company requires a lot of time, energy, and money. It’s been estimated that it takes around $100 million to turn a product into a household brand name. Chances are you don’t have this sitting in your bank account. However, while you can’t reach all potential customers, you can reach a small segment of the market that sees the highest value in your product. You are basically doing the same thing big companies do, but on a much smaller scale. Plus, once you get traction and start generating revenue, you can always expand from there.

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