Think of the game of football. Before the game, coaches sit with the players, go over plays and how they are going to win this game. If a particular team they are facing has really good defense, they are going to think of different offensive plays that can score them a touchdown.

They are going to pin down a strategy. And in a way, this is the key to starting, running and making a business thrive. A key to a successful business truly isn’t the product that you are trying to sell. Sure, it may play a imperative role in your success, but isn’t the key that unlocks your success. It’s your strategy.

While there are many strategies that business owners can come up with, one strategy that every business owner should consider is figuring out your target audience and your target market.

Unsure of the difference? Check out the Youtube video Target Market vs. Target Audience to help put your questions to rest.

In the article, “How To Define Your Target Market.” author Mandy Porta states, “small businesses can effectively compete with large companies by targeting a niche market.”

It’s inevitable that every start-up is going to go against big businesses who have already made a name for themselves. The way that their baby start-up business is going to be able to compete is figure out what market and audience they should target and that isn’t fully being targeted by big businesses.

In class when we started to talk about competition, markets and audiences, I started thinking about how I’ve experienced a situation that had the same elements to it, that was being discussed.

Throughout my novice career as a journalist, I’ve written for a few online publications. It was a great opportunity to showcase my creative thoughts and writing skills to the online world.

Even though I was still expressing my thoughts and opinions, I realized who my target audience was. It was people my age. People that could relate to what I was talking about. Once I figured out who mainly read my articles, writing articles became easier fun and my page views went up. I was throwing in jokes that were relevant to my audience.  I felt like my online presence was growing and it was an exciting time.

My experience, though it was nothing like creating a business, still taught me to pay attention to who my audience was.

In the New York Times article, “A Crazy Idea for Funding Local News: Charge People for It” by Farhad Manjoo, it talks about Facebook and how it was going to start allowing local news on the newsfeed.

And then it launches into this brilliant idea of sending out journalists and having them cover everything that’s not mainstream and then charging people to read it. It’s absolutely genius.

And that’s also how a person can make a profit as well.

Creating a start-up is hard, but we all know it. Once you accept that it’s not going to be a piece of cake. Entrepreneurs need to be able to look at the opposing teams defense and create offense plays that are going to be able to let them score that touchdown. It’s time to put your game face on.