There are very few brands that are truly remarkable and worthy of global renown. Even the most successful brands reach only an itsy bitsy fraction of the world’s population. In other words, “big” brands are successful despite their limited reach.

It’s good to have a grand vision for your business, but the surest way to get there is with small goals. That includes starting with the smallest market possible.

That might sound absurd, but aiming to please everyone leads to mediocrity. We end up with a business designed by committee.

If you reflect on when you started your business, I bet you over-estimated how big your market was. It’s normal. You wouldn’t be an entrepreneur if you weren’t optimistic.

Most start-ups and new products far underperform their up-take projections. So don’t plan to fail. Capturing the whole market doesn’t happen in one step.

When we limit our audience, we automatically pay a lot more attention to each special customer. Focusing on a select group of customers makes us lean, agile and efficient. Loyal fans can help us fix our product until we’re ready to scale up.

For your next product launch, imagine refining your marketing so that only your ideal customers respond. It will need you to define your audience precisely – vague, abstract criteria won’t do. Compared to trying to sell to the masses, a well-defined target audience is a small audience.

Then imagine if everyone who responds buys from you. Now imagine that everyone who buys from you is so delighted they’re compelled to spread the word.

Win your first loyal customers, then build from there.

If limiting your target audience sounds scary, ask yourself which you’d prefer: a mediocre business for the masses, or a remarkable business in a profitable niche?