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When SBEC asked what costly mistakes entrepreneurs should avoid, one of our mentors Fred Held provided some valuable insight. According to Fred, one of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is not knowing their target market which can end up causing a business to fail. Fred: My clients usually fall into focusing on how wonderful their offering might be. They believe that there is nothing like it on the market and think they will make it in the USA. One of the most common assumptions is that the target market is everyone. They have not done a product profit plan. Usually they will not be able to compete making it in the USA. They do no market research or believe anything negative from a survey of consumers. The result is more than 90 percent fail. Spend time doing market research and understand the target market of your business and your efforts will be worth it. Much like what Martha Spelman mentioned in our previous post, most people just think about how great their idea is and believe it will sell to everyone. However, you truly need to understand your target market to succeed.
