Find Your Market and Your Niche

Your niche is where you will excel. It is where you are strongest. It is where your solution has maximum impact. You may have more than one niche, but it is most effective if you identify and focus on one niche to gain traction.

So whether you are starting a new business, want to expand your existing business, or take your business in a new direction, finding the right niche is key to your success.

Do you have a niche in mind or are you unsure what direction to take and who to target? Do you wonder if your niche is big enough or is it too big? Is it big enough to be profitable, but small enough to be manageable?

Let’s examine why you select a niche, how to identify niches, gathering information to make your niche decision, and making the final decision on which niche to pursue.

So where do we start? Let’s start by taking some of the complexity out. Picking a niche doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful.

The first thing we want to do is define the problem we solve or the need we fill. Once we have a clear definition of what we do, then we can match it to the people who have the need, are looking for the solution, and are willing to buy!

So let’s define what all the things your solution can do and what is interesting, exciting, and captures the attention about your solution. Now create a list of all the people or businesses that could benefit from the solution. Put an asterisk beside the ones you are most excited about. Now put a dollar sign beside those that make money.

Military target on dollar

Here is a key question I ask my clients. Are you in business to make the most money you can or have the biggest impact? Now these are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but you want to put your focus on what matters most to you. If it is maximizing income, then your niche will have different characteristics than if you are focused on maximizing the number of people or the degree of influence or impact you have.

So are you focused on making as much money as possible even if you don’t enjoy what you do or are you more interested in loving what you do and willing to have a smaller (yet still profitable, even comfortable) financial result?

Understand that you can identify a niche that provides maximum financial return and within that niche find the things that interest you most, that excite you most. Or you can go after the things that interest and excite you most and look for the money.

Here is another perspective on this. You can go after the money motive and use your success to fund the things you are passionate about.

The marketplace tells a story. You can through observation, on-line research, a survey of relevant publications, and through networking learn about the marketplace and identify a niche within that market to target. The most successful businesses are those that are an expert in their market, their niche, the competition, and their products and services. The more you know, the more you grow!

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