Identifying your community is an important startup activity. This is where you ask, “who is my customer?” or “who do I want to serve?”. This will be the group of people who you will get to know and to understand their needs, or maybe you already know them, and for whom you will develop solutions.
The definition of community here is a group of people having common interests, or forming a distinct segment of society, or who share similarities, or who participate in similar activities. They don’t necessarily need to all know each other or live in the same area or under the same government.
You can identify a community in different ways:
- By profession, like “I want to serve writers and authors” or “I want to serve software developers” or “I want to serve freelance graphic designers”
- By location, like “I want to serve people who live near rivers and lakes” or “I want to serve people who live in large cities”
- By age, like “I want to serve the elderly” or “I want to serve teens”
- By life event, like “I want to serve new moms”
Remember that while you need to select just one community right now, you can change it or expand to serve additional communities later.
For some businesses, it might seem that the market is obvious. For example, if your business is a coffee shop, you might think that your community is anyone in that area or passing through who wants a coffee. But it can be more than that — it can be people who need an energy boost, or people who need a place to do remote work because they have too many distractions at home, or it could be a place where people go to meet friends. You might cater to these different audiences by offering some high-caffeine menu items, free Wi-Fi, and comfortable places for people to sit together. A single business can serve multiple communities, but you need to know who they are so you can start thinking about and asking about their needs.
Compass
After you identify the community, continue to identify their needs.
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