Many small business owners struggle with finding new customers and clients. In today's world of online and offline marketing, people are bombarded by a plethora of ads from all sources. How do you compete? Where do you find your customers? What new marketing method should you employ? These, and other common questions, are often discussed in entrepreneurial groups and forums. It may surprise you to know that attracting your customers is one of the best methods for increasing your customer base.



By now you may have either seen the movie, The Secret, or you have heard it referred to it several times by friends and associates. This movie talks about the law of attraction and how to create a path for getting what you want out of life.

Although this is a fairly new movie, the law of attraction has been in place for thousands of years. As the movie states, it works on the energy we put out. If we put out a positive energy, we receive positive results. When we put out negative energy, we receive negative results. Although this seems simplistic, you can see it at work in your day to day life.

To utilize this method of attraction in your business, set aside several hours to brainstorm and then create your attraction action plan.

Find a pad of paper and answer four questions:

1. Who is my perfect customer? Make this a long laundry list of everything you can think of that makes up your ideal client. Include characteristics, beliefs, thoughts, motivations or qualities. For example, does your ideal client have a sense of humor? Does he have a belief that bills should be paid before they are due, or when he has the time? What do they do for work and with whom? Do they have an interest in the success of your business or does that matter?

2. What does my perfect customer need from me? Your ideal customer will quite often have a similar mission as you, as well as similar values, so ask yourself a series of questions: what keeps you awake at night when you can't get to sleep, what gets you up in the morning, what is more important to you than anything else, etc. You are looking for motivations and values that you will later use in developing, refining or presenting your products and services.

3. What kind of a vendor do I want to be for my perfect customer? Now that you have identified your ideal client, how do you want to provide your product or service? What is it about you and your product or service that connects with the ideal client? What would your ideal client expect from you?

Another idea is to ask yourself how you want to run your business. Here you are really describing how your perfect customer will want you to act, be, or do. What boundaries do you need to set in place so that you can best serve your ideal customer?

Finally, list all of the products or services you want to provide for your perfect customer, including how and where you provide them, pricing, sales method, etc.

4. What do I choose to do to better serve my perfect customer? By answering the questions in #1 and #2, you identified your ideal client. In #3, you wrote out how you want to do business and what you want to provide to, or for, the customer. Now, go back to #3 and find the areas you want to develop in order to attract your ideal client to you.

As an example, if you identified in #3 that your perfect customer would like some follow up after the sale, and you recognize that you are inconsistent with that, this is an area of improvement. Develop an action plan. Determine what you are going to do for follow up and get the system in place.

Once you have completed this process, you will have a much better idea of who you want to work with, where you will find them, what will attract them to you, and how your products or services match what they need and want. You will also have identified areas that need improvement and created an action plan for them, and be well on your way to attracting the perfect customer to you.