How can we stay focused on our goals?

Short Answer:

If you’re a startup, you likely won’t know for a couple years. Sell to anyone and everyone who will buy to later determine the right target market. Once you’ve been in a market for a while, segment your existing customers by “job to be done” and then ask which are the easiest customers to sell, what are they buying more of, and where are the margins higher – then go do more of that and pull out of segments, distribution channels, and product lines that don’t fit what you’re good at and/or have razor thin margins.

Longer Answer:

Read Geoffrey Moore’s classic book Crossing the Chasm. If a startup, the earlier you can focus on a niche, product line, and/or local geography the better. Airbnb messed around for six years trying to scale in multiple markets. Finally, Paul Graham of Y-Combinator fame asked them “where are your best customers?” They responded “everywhere!” Then he rephrased – where do you presently have the most beds. They answered “NYC” where they had just 20 beds. So, Paul suggested the three founders pack up and move to NYC and live with their customers until they figured out what wasn’t working – and stay until they 10x’d the business. They figured out the “beds” needed better photos and descriptions, and they stayed until they reached 200 beds in that local market. The rest is history – that gave them the critical mass they needed to expand to additional markets.