Over the past number of years in working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and self-employed people in the planning, launch and development of their businesses, we have observed that many businesses face similar development challenges.

Leading the way are three types of target market related obstacles: 1) The target audience may be poorly defined, 2) a misjudged target or 3) a changing audience. If the business cannot clearly define who its target market is or if the business does not have a clear picture of the type of customers it wants to win and keep, then it will likely have a difficult time trying to attract them. One of the most common fallouts of a poorly defined target is that the business tries to present itself as being all things to all customers and runs the risk of becoming nothing to everyone.

A misjudged target market occurs when the business can define its target market but in spite of all of its efforts, the market does not respond. The culprit here is often one or more unchecked assumptions, which have led the business to generalize or draw an incorrect conclusion(s) about its market.

When a business has been around for while and its market begins to erode or deteriorate, it may be due to a changing target market. The business may lay blame at competition or the economic environment. While sometimes that is true, it may actually be a changing audience. A target audience is always changing - incrementally and imperceptibly every day. Rarely are there any sudden, big, flashy changes. Most of the changes go unnoticed as one day moves into the next and then cumulatively, these changes start to have an impact.

Another business development challenge comes from working inside the business instead of working on the business. We have learned that when you ask the principal(s) about what he / she does, they generally talk about what work they do instead of the markets they serve. A time study often shows most of the valuable business development time is spent working inside the business in the production of the product or delivery of the service. In fact, the principal(s) acts more like an employee than an owner of the business should. They don't like to delegate jobs to others because they think no-one else can do it as well as they can. Consequently, the total output or revenue potential of the business is bottlenecked and restricted to that which the principal(s) can physically produce, as there is little or no leverage available.

A third major obstacle is that there is no selling strategy or the selling strategy is fractured. If there is no selling strategy then what are the methods of finding new customers? If they are not defined, the business is most often seen doing the flip flop - jumping here, jumping there, trying this, trying that - and not being sure where to focus.
How does the business present to new potential customers? The new customer is in unfamiliar territory filled with uncertainty. How is the business approaching them to win them over?
Does the business follow up with new customers and if it does, what does the follow up consist of? How does the business plan to retain these new customers and obtain referrals from them? We all know that the business needs to do these things but in the hectic day to day life, these tasks are often ignored or dropped. Consequently, the business growth is curtailed or depleted.
A fractured selling strategy may be defined when the "loop" is incomplete. Several of the key selling strategy tasks are performed - which could also means that others are not. The result is similar to not having a selling strategy.

The fourth observed obstacle is that the focus is on the product or service instead of the customer. The question is what business are you really in? If the business finds itself answering that question by defining its product or service then this may well be the obstacle to the business' development. A product or service is only a means to an end and in itself is not the business - it is just a 'channel' or a 'medium' to carry out the business. Products and services will evolve, change and fade away. If the focus is on the customer then it is very likely that the business will always be able to adapt and grow with its market.

Dave Schulte is co-author of the book "A Practical Approach to Entrepreneurship"