This evening, I was walking two dogs: mine and my mother-in-law’s.

My dog, Luna, is two years old and very energetic. She loves long runs in the park and it takes a lot to tire her out.

My mother-in-law’s dog, Bailey, is nearly 15 years old. She’s deaf, partially blind, and is super cute for an old beagle.

And while she loves walks, she couldn’t make it too far in the boatload of snow that fell last night. Who could blame her?

We eventually made it to the park but the walk was shorter than usual. Bailey just couldn’t get very far in the snow.

As a result, Luna didn’t get the long walk she needed and Bailey was beyond her limits most of the time. Neither got what they wanted.

So what’s the moral of the story?

When you try to sell your space to a market that is too broad and diverse, you end up pleasing each group poorly, if at all.

Luna didn’t get the walk she wanted most and Bailey got too much of a walk for her tastes.

The more you focus your efforts on serving one particular type of member, the more likely you are to create raving fans.

Happy members = a good business.

If your space is struggling, ask yourself: are you trying to attract too wide a range of members to your space?

Could you instead focus on a smaller segment of the addressable market and find ways to over-deliver for them?

I’m willing to bet that the more you focus your business on serving a smaller segment, the better you’ll serve those members, the longer you’ll keep them, and the more profit you’ll see at the end of the day.

Not to mention, your marketing will actually get people’s attention, too.

 

P.S. If your coworking space is struggling, we should talk. There are all kinds of strategic, tactical, creative, or technical things that you could do to improve your results. Reduce your risk. Don’t do it alone.