The Twenty Percent

1) Find a business owner and talk to them about their customers. Who do they think their target customers are? What are their customers' unmet needs?Where do they find their customers? What are their customer's demographics? What kinds of media do their customers consume? Etc.
I spoke to the owners one of my favorite panaderias (José from Pastelería Nunos) in Madrid about how they started and how they became so successful. I chose them over another sustainability cafe that I knew of in the city to interview because they have built a very very loyal customer base, which can be hard to do, especially as a young company in a gigantic city, and in my experience in businesses like this, the most important thing to focus on is the people.  

• According to the owner, José Fernández-Ramos, the keys of success to his business are:
• Location: they have a prime location in the heart of Madrid; "tenemos mucha suerte...." 
• Their target customers are the local workforce in Madrid's city center & their "hotspots" of the day are the transit times, like breakfast and lunch, when the business people of Madrid traditionally take their coffees and pastries
• As opposed to some other more modern businesses, their social media is fairly limited, and they prefer to build their customer base in-person because they are targeting a very specific audience in a very specific location, otherwise if they were planning on expanding, he says he would consider other channels of communication for his customers.

After being asked for advice on how to go about starting a bakery-type business, offered me the advice to keep it simple. He said the most important thing is to recognize one customer need, and to clearly address that need better than your competitors. In his case, this was pastries and coffee. "Not complicated and my customers clearly like it."

2) Next, go and talk to 3 'target customers' -- using the demographics/psychographics the entrepreneur described. As these 'target customers' the questions in the paragraph directly above.

• After talking to three different customers between the breakfast and lunch rushes at the bakery, this is the feedback that I received: 
• Customer 1: Banker, Santander Bank, Madrid
• Loved the bakery because of the convenient location on his way to work; also loved that it was a family environment and that when José is in the bakery, he makes an effort to personally check on his customers. He did not have any critiques for the bakery.
• Customer 2: Undergraduate University Student, St. Louis University Madrid
• Only the second time she had been to the bakery, but came back because she enjoyed the wide selection of pastries and said the coffee was very good. "A good way to start my morning." She said she would continue to come back. Only critique offered was a suggestion to be able to call in orders or have a web page where people could see what pastries or deals were offered on a particular day. 
• Customer 3: Construction Worker
• Likes the wide selection that the bakery had to offer and that certain specialty items were available depending on the time of the year, which kept him looking forward to coming back (like the turron during Christmastime, for example). Did not have any critiques other than that the bakery can get crowded and noisy at times, but that that is a sign of content customers. 

3) Reflect. Does the entrepreneur adequately understand their customers' problems? Where are the differences? Why might these differences exist. 

• Yes, the entrepreneur has a clear picture of who his customers are and what they want to take from his business. I really liked the advice he gave me in regards to "keeping it simple" when it came to my business ideas and how I sold them to customers, because I know I have a tendency to get wrapped up in details a lot of times. One thing that José might want to pay attention to eventually is his customers' need for contact through social media, even though he prefers to run more of a traditional, "mom 'n pop" style operation. 

*entrepreneur requested that I not record the interview*