Case study: Helping small business owners clearly define their ideal client
Context
A group of small business owners attended a short workshop designed to help them clarify who their ideal client is. Most participants had been operating for some time but felt their messaging, offers, and marketing lacked focus. Many described trying to appeal to “anyone who might need us”.
The challenge
Participants were overwhelmed by generic advice about niching and ideal client profiles. Previous attempts to define their audience had resulted in surface-level descriptions that were difficult to apply in day-to-day decision-making. As a result, marketing felt effortful and inconsistent, and business owners lacked confidence in who they were really building for.
Approach
The workshop was structured to move participants away from abstract personas and toward evidence-based thinking.
The session included:
Short teaching segments on how small businesses typically misinterpret “ideal client”
Guided exercises to identify real customers, not hypothetical ones
Analysis of past work to uncover common patterns in customer needs and behaviour
Practical prompts to connect customer clarity to pricing, services, and communication
Participants worked with their own business information throughout the workshop so outputs were immediately usable.
Key insights
Most businesses already had enough information to define their ideal client but had not examined it closely
“Good” customers were defined more by alignment and ease than by demographics
Clarity improved when participants focused on problems they were best placed to solve
Letting go of poorly aligned customers felt uncomfortable but created relief and focus
Outcome
By the end of the workshop, participants could clearly articulate who their ideal client was and, just as importantly, who they were not for. Many left with a single, concise description they could use across their website, proposals, and conversations. Several reported feeling more confident making decisions about enquiries, collaborations, and future offers.
Why this mattered
For small business owners, lack of customer clarity creates unnecessary friction. This workshop demonstrated that focused, well-facilitated thinking can unlock confidence and direction without complex frameworks or heavy marketing theory.