Haters Gonna Hate - How Taylor Swift Makes You a Better Entrepreneur

First off, lets start with something funny. If you know the song "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, and you're a Dwayne Johnson fan, you've gotta watch the video below.

Taylor knows something about being successful, but even Taylor has haters. Why is that? It's because she writes music for a specific group of people and appeals to segment of the market. The rest of the market doesn't like her, and dare I say, some of them may even hate her. But Taylor knows her space and she makes a lot of money because she's willing to over serve a segment of the market.

Until you're willing to turn the wrong customers away and give everything you've got to the right ones, you'll never make real money.

The Problem with Entrepreneurship

As entrepreneurs, we want to create a product or service that the whole world will love. We want everyone and their dog line up with cash in hand. But today, even more than ever due to the internet, markets are segmented. There are so many ways for people with like interests to connect and rally around their passion that a one-size-fits-all product or service is no longer viable. It may have worked in the 50's, but not today. That means that if you're doing this right, the majority of the world will not be interested in your product or service. However, the remaining people will love you. They will fall head over heals in obsession with you assuming that you've made something they value.

Lovers Gonna Love

That's the secret. If your product or service caters to a specific group of people, they're going to love you more than you thought possible. They'll put your logo on their bumper stickers, they'll share you with their friends, and they'll come back to buy more from you. All we need to do now is convince Taylor Swift to write a second song called "Lovers Gonna Love".

If you're a shoe company and you make general fitness shoes, nobody will notice you. There are too many companies like Nike in the space. However, if you make a shoe specific to the needs of weightlifters that allows them to squat better, you'll have a better chance of serving that market.

A lot of business owners say they serve a specific section of a market, but often have a hard time verbalizing who the ideal customer is. If you're going to successfully serve a segment, can you define who your raving fans are? If you can only describe them with general demographics then you're failing.

How to Incorrectly Describe Your Market

Between the ages of 18 and 50
Upper-class American with college degree
Annual salary between $80,000 and $200,000 a year
Female

How to Correctly Describe Your Market

Obsessed with weightlifting
Wants a shoe to support them during squats
Cares about looking good at the gym
Uses the Bodyspace App more than most social media accounts

You get the idea. If you are describing your customers with demographics, you don't know your customer. As such, you're still trying to make a product or service that everyone will love, which means that nobody will love it. Get specific and service a segment of a market well. When you do, the haters are gonna hate because you're not serving them and your target market is going to love you to death.