The 7 Step Criteria For a Profitable and Successful Business

The fastest way, and the easiest way to build a successful and profitable business is to help enough other people get what they want. Whether that is by solving a specific problem for your ideal client or by helping them to reach a goal and outcome that they really want and can't get on their own. 

It can be easy to make assumptions about what people need, want and desire without taking the time to really ask them what they want. And it's also easy to be so close to and so in love with what you do, that you imagine everyone else will see it the way you do. This is a problem that a lot of emerging entrepreneurs make - not understanding how to relate to what they do, to the real wants, needs and desires of their audience.

So how can we mine for our client's gems? How can we start to uncover what it is they need, want and desire without putting our own bias in the way? By making sure that we are checking our business ideas fit these 7 criteria.

The 7 profitable business criteria

1/ Your business idea must solve a very specific market need 

Now, this could be solving a specific problem or delivering a specific outcome. The key is choosing a need, problem or outcome that people know they already have. Don't try to solve a problem that you think is important, but not a lot of people seem to care about in the what you in the way you do. Does that make sense?

2/ Your business idea is targeted at a specific kind of person

This is your ideal client and someone who self identifies with the way that you describe them. 

3/ You need to identify a specific person who needs that problem (criteria 1) solved

When you describe the specific need you address and the kind of problem you solve for the person you described in #2, it creates a clear mental picture of someone specific who needs that solution. A really simple way of thinking about this is when other people hear about the problem you solve they instantly say 'Oh you should talk to my friend Audrey. She really needs what you're talking about.'

4/ Your ideal client is open to getting help and they're willing and able to invest in what you have to offer

With most profitable niches, your ideal clients should be actively seeking the solution that you offer.

5/ You can easily reach your target customers

This can be through your personal network or through advertising, networking, joint ventures etc. 

6/ There are more than enough of your target audience to build a business. 

As a good rule of thumb you want to have at least 5000 people that you could market to. If there isn't, you can make money but it becomes really hard to scale your business. So you'll just hit a ceiling that you can't seem to break at that point. Some people may say that this number should be more like 10,000 but in most distinctive kinds of specialty businesses, if you can find and know that there's at least 5000 people that could use your product or services, then you know that it's going to be a viable business, that will work.

7/ You can actually help this person solve this problem and you enjoy it too

Now this is often the only criteria that people meet when they start out their business and the easiest one to meet. Many people focus on what they enjoy helping people with, which is criteria number seven, but they forget all of the criteria of two through six. So they end up forgetting to think about or talk about what they do in a way that's relevant to a specific kind of person. So nobody's interested in listening, and then nobody buys.

Getting specific can strike fear into the hearts of creative entrepreneurs and we can sometimes become so attached to what we think we should be doing that we miss the signs.

Going through this process of checking in with your business and making sure that you're hitting all the criteria is so valuable. If we'er open to hearing the feedback that we're getting from everyone and everything alongside using this objective criteria to help ground us then you can turn inspiration and ideas into an actionable plan.