Do Your Sights Line Up with Your Targets?

Who, What, Where, How and Why… Do you really have a handle on these items in your business?

More often than not, when I speak to business owners at events, those that have bought my book or those that take me up on my 30 minute free strategy sessions the same picture pops up.

The key components that make up their (and any) business just don’t add up.





Your business vision and execution relies on making sure all of your sights are lined up on corresponding targets. Let me show you what I mean:

Who- This is your ideal target audience.

What- These are the main target services your business is looking to deliver to the Who.

Where- This is the target location of your Who. Are you delivering to a city, county, state, region, national, international? Does your What and Who require a bigger geographic footprint or can you deliver fairly locally?

When- This is your timing target and has 3 parts. Is a main What or an addition income stream What? If a main What should it be used to open doors or after you are already in with the Who with another What? Is it best to be bleeding edge, leading edge or introduced when established in the industry?

How- This is a 3 part target. In which ways and formats will you deliver your What to your Who (project oriented, recurring revenue, reseller, etc)? In which ways will you set things up internally to most efficiently and effectively deliver the What to your Who? In which ways will you be attracting, telling and selling your What to your Who?

Why- This is a 2 part target. For what internal business reasons are you providing your What to your Who in your Where (i.e. high margins, recurring revenue, etc)? And for what reasons would your Who need and want your What (i.e Why are they your ideal Who for your What)?


Can you answer these basic questions for each one of your company’s main offerings?

The sad truth is many small technology business owners can’t. Often times it leads to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by offering to provide great services and technology solutions to the wrong target audience that just doesn’t see the value in it. In that case, which is wrong? The Who or the What or the How?

Maybe it’s the Where, When or the Why? Are you limiting your business by having a small geographic footprint? Are you trying to add services that your target audience doesn’t want or can’t use? Is it too new or bold to tell the Who about right now?

Thinking these high level items out thoroughly is a huge part of working on the business versus in it. These are executive type planning and decision items.

So I ask you again: Who, What, Where, When, How and Why… Do you really have a handle on these items in your business?

By the way, if you were looking to ask me which of these items comes first, it’s a bit of the chicken or the egg syndrome between Who and What.

If you already have a client base and you are looking to expand offerings to them, then the Who comes first as it already exists and the What should be fit to that. If you are starting a new business or getting into a new area of services, the I would recommend figuring out What you want to offer then the Who and Where that would best fit those offerings.


See you next week with a video blog. If you have any questions for me to answer, you can find me at consultantscoach.com



To Your Business Success-

George Sierchio
The Consultant’s Coach