If you had been in a discussion about starting your own business you have heard most of these before:
- Oh, that’s already been done.
- Nothing new or great in that.
- Too much competition there.
- Nobody will buy that.
- That’s impossible.
There are a couple of things I want to point out here. If you are in these discussions or these aspects demotivate you there is a very vital part of starting a business that you have missed.
How To Find Your Niche Market
All these doubts and uncertainty will melt away as soon as you zero in on your niche. Unfortunately deciding on your niche is not as easy as it seems. When you work on zeroing your niche a strong counter intuitive force will come to play that will leave you confused and undecided.
When you niche it down your target market becomes specific and then you get worried about ignoring all the business that could otherwise come to you.
Strangely you will find this dilemma so deep-rooted that it may leave you almost perplexed. But here is what you need to do:
- Identify problems you can solve
- Research your target market and competition
- Determine Profitability of your niche
If you completed the first exercise and used the idea generation tool, it’s time to expand on it and pass your ideas through above three filters.
What are the pain points of customers that you are planning to solve? “What keeps them up at night” The viability of your project greatly lies in correctly finding a pain area and then providing a solution in a “right way” at the “right time”
Don’t hesitate to research your target marketing and the competition. The most effective way of doing this is directly talking to your target market. Have one to one conversations with your target market, extract ideas and peel off the intricacies. This will help you pinpoint the problem and design an effective solution.
Don’t forget to use other obvious resources like peruse internet forums (Quora) or Google AdWords for your research. You will get some great pointers there.
Here is an important point… if you find competition in your niche there is a possibility that good money is being made in it. But you could avoid getting into a niche that’s too competitive or even finds ways to stand out in a competitive market… create a unique offer or bring one with a twist.
Keep your eyes open and sense the opportunity, You could be immensely successful in a crowded market or in the one still untapped.
Here are some pointers:
- Low-quality content on websites, poor presentation of problem solution, lack of sense of service to the customers.
- Presence of faceless or overly corporate players (You may disrupt these markets with just being authentic and transparent)
- Niche with high “search volume” with low competition which also has a lack of paid competition.
If you reached this far the things will start unraveling for you and you will have newfound comfort with the target market you want to operate in. You will have clarity of your niche and at-least a couple of ideas that you would bet on.
But be cautious… You should assess the profitability of your ideas. This will greatly enhance your chances of success.
If your business is brick and mortar open up the yellow pages or do an actual “walk and jot” about what your niche looks like. If you are into internet based niche go straight to site like clickbank.com and search for your keyword.
In any case, if you don’t find an “overabundance” of operators it’s a good sign. You are in luck. Do make a note of price points and what the offer looks like. This will help you later to design a really competitive offer.
Side Note 1: Remember that you don’t have to necessarily start a business with a product offering of your own. You can always partner with product creators, advertisers or site owners in your niche. This will help you begin generating commissions while you’re working on your own unique offering.
Side Note 2: While due diligence is important to find a viable niche it’s better to get up and running than wait around forever. You want to enter the market sooner and take home all the success and failures. If you succeed, well and good, if not, you should be ready with your next big idea.
So there you have it…Almost everything you need to know to finalize your niche. If you are still have questions and need help to get this going (finalizing your niche). Just claim your FREE 15 minute consult by clicking here.