Understanding your Market

What is the profile of individual clients who your funders wish you to target?  What roles do they expect you to play?  What functions do they expect you to carry out?

How many clients are there in your target groups/areas?  What is their profile (eg long term Job Seeker Allowance inactive, male, female, lone parents, Black and Minority Ethnick (BME), people with disabilities etc).  What proportion of these are you expected to engage with? 

Are your funders being clear and explicit enough about the focus and scale of your task?

Where are these clients?  How can you engage them and draw them into your service? What local services do they use (eg local charities, social services, GP practices)?  Can you work with these services to encourage relevant referrals?  Can you co-locate with them or place staff with them to promote effective joint working? Have you thought about outreach work? Community animators and outreach surgeries are tried and tested ways of engaging with people.