You may have found yourself, like many people today, starting up your own business. Whether recovering from a corporate lay-off or simply taking advantage of the opportunity to follow your passion, you want to make your business as successful as possible. If this is your first adventure into self-employment, you may not understand how to do that. While there are many variables that will eventually determine your success, by following this simple formula you will find it easier to reach the success you want with your business.

The most important thing when you are starting your business is to determine who, exactly, is your customer. The more exactly you can define your customer, the easier it will be to make your business a success. For example, an accountant's customers may be individual tax payers if he has a tax preparation practice. Another accountant's customers may be the owners of small companies with less than 20 employees, while a third may specialize in not-for-profit organizations. Each one is an accountant, but they each define their customers differently.

Once you know who your customer is, the next step is to be sure you understand exactly what it is that your customer wants. Going back to the accountants above, the tax accountant might determine that his customer's want to be able to pay as little as possible in their income tax, even if that means paying much of the savings to the accountant. The small business accountant may understand that his customers need help with payroll accounting and how holding inventory may affect their tax burden. The nonprofit accountant would probably know that his customers want someone familiar with the special rules related to nonprofit accounting.

Now that you know who your customer is and what he wants, you'll need to determine where you can find him. Does your customer read certain magazines? Is your particular demographic likely to be watching a certain channel on television, or even a specific show? The better able you were to define who your customer really is, the easier it will be to find out where he is. There are many resources available to the business owner to find out things about a target demographic.

Of course, the reason you need to know where to find your customer is because, in order to be truly successful with your business, you will need to get yourself out in front of your customer and present him with exactly that for which he is looking. You should know him well enough, without having even met him yet, that you can speak to him as though you were long lost friends. You understand him, and you're showing him so by offering him what he wants. There is no surer path to success in business.

If in the beginning of this article we discussed market research, and product targeting, it is likely that your eyes would have glazed over. While these topics, especially for the entrepreneur, can be as exciting as an insurance policy, a deep understanding of your market and its hot buttons will help your business succeed faster and easier, and will keep your customers happy and loyal.