It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to build a profitable business, have a popular brand name and earn the loyalty of customers.
And I don’t blame you if you happen to fall into this category of leaders and change makers, looking to put a dent in your chosen industry, with your innovative ideas, unwavering grit and relentless passion.
But did you know, over 100 million new startups are launched every year around the world? That makes 11,000 businesses every hour, and just over three businesses every second!
Given such staggering numbers of new businesses entering an already overcrowded market every day, it goes without saying that to stand out and realise one’s business dream venture, is definitely not a walk in the park - In fact, 90% of these new startups are found to fail!
And the topmost reason for these new ventures to fail is – They are making products no one wants. A survey of failed startups determined that 42% identified a ‘lack of a market need for their product’ as the single biggest reason for failure.
Nevertheless, there are those unique startups whose vision, ingenuity and passion have made them stand out from the crowd and have proven themselves successful in carving a niche business, in an ocean of competitors, such as; Dollar Shave Club (razor subscription service); Warby Parker (online prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses store); Drybar (only blow-drys no cuts); or CW Pencils (only sells pencils).
Now before you get all excited and start building a business on the next ‘shiny-new-idea’, let’s explore a few ways in which you can carve out a successful niche business of your own:
1. Find your Passion – What Really Drives You?
The one similarity you can draw from most of the successful brands or entrepreneurs is that all of them have built a business around what they absolutely love.
And it’s not a ‘half-hearted’, ‘let’s-see-where-this-goes’ kinda interest, but rather the type of affinity with the product/idea, that makes them jump out of their beds every morning with a burning passion and intention.
When you put all your weight in something that drives you immensely from your core, it works like a powerful magnet, attracting the right people and opportunities. You have the advantage to play to your strength and will develop the grit to ‘learn’ and ‘adapt’ much easily, if ‘passion’ is in place.
2. Find The Need - Dive Deeper Into Your Niche
Once you’ve discovered your passion, it’s important to research/learn about the problems your target market is experiencing, and which are the ones you’re capable of solving most effectively. You also need to look into your competition in the market and conduct comparative study on products, prices, services, to discover how you can set yourself apart from the rest, which particular aspect in the niche hasn’t been looked into? Or which one of your core expertise addresses a unique problem, which can be taken as a ‘micro-niche’?
A useful tactic is to zoom in on the one thing that you absolutely ‘love’ and possess expertise in. Do not spread yourself too thin on ideas/aspects that you think ‘could work’, or is ‘good enough’. For instance, if you are a designer who is tired of working on website templates, and your passion is actually branding and logo designs, then you must work on what keeps you ticking and drop the web designing part.
When you zoom in on the one thing that you can deliver exceptionally well, that immediately shows, and customers will immediately label you as the ‘go to’ source for that particular specialty. It’s not that hair stylists at Drybar do not know how to cut hair, they just chose to focus their ‘expertise’ on one aspect of the ‘hair stylist’ niche, which is ‘blow-drys’, hence have managed to win hearts of customers and target audience, who are in need for ‘blow-drys’.
3. Create Value, Repeat & Market
The most essential characteristic of a successful niche business is that they create the utmost value in what they do. It’s not about being okay at many things, but being exceptionally good at one thing and constantly improving ‘how’ the idea/product/service is helping to bring great value and memorable experience to the customers.
The next course of action would be to consistently provide the value via your unique solutions and find ways to grow your niche marketplace. Marketing is the crux of any new niche business, as by definition, you need to find the exposure and the connection to find the ‘right’ kind of client/audience.
It’s not like you’ve opened a new Target store down the street and are expecting customers to flock in by the hundreds. If you’ve got a store selling ‘pencils’ only, or one that only designs clothing and accessories for ‘bull dogs’, then you’d better send out your messages loud and clear, or else people wouldn’t even realise that such a ‘micro-niche’ of a business exists. The best way nowadays is to work on the ‘right’ online and social marketing strategies, which can help your brand gather a sizeable traffic of followers and unique customers, who love your brand, its mission and its unique product/solution!
To Sum It Up…
Creating a niche business will take a lot of dedication, hard work and time on your part, and it’s always a good strategy to take time to evaluate and be introspective, than being in a hurry to only come up with a half-baked idea or a product!
If you'd like further assistance or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
