Passion is the driving force of successful businesses; fear is the paralyzer. Naysayers often cast gloom over the sentiment that if you do what you love it isn’t work. But building a niche-focused business around your passion is completely possible if you have vision, leadership and determination. Take it from Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group: “If I have fun doing this, I assume other people will have fun doing this.”
Niche businesses satisfy specific market needs of audience’s interests that are often either overlooked or underserved by larger conglomerates. Niches are people focused and can better customize their services to meet their target market’s preferences.
Here are some tips to build a niche-focused business around your passion:
Narrow Your Passion
The first step in realizing your niche is to narrow your business focus to one type of product or one specific service. Say your passion is fitness and you want to start a business around this interest. But because fitness is such a broad topic, there is a big chance you’ll get lost in the crowd. Lack of focus and trying to sell to everyone will get you nowhere. So, break it down:
Fitness > trainer > personal trainer. You could start a personal training business. But you need to break that down even further. You love working with kids. You could start a pediatric personal trainer business.
Once you narrow your passion, you can easily realize and establish your niche and find that specific group of people who have a specific set of needs.
Establish Your Niche
In the beginning phases of your company, it’s vital to clearly define your niche. It might be centered on a philosophy that you run your business by (i.e. Richard Branson sells fun). Or, you might choose to build your business around a specific product that meets the needs of a narrowly defined customer base (i.e. Apple Rubber sells mass quantities of o-rings for multiple industries worldwide).
Niches focus on specific customer group needs. With a narrow focus, you can better service your clients and increase the odds for success.
Define Your Target Market
If your niche is the service you specialize in, your target market is the specific audience you are serving. Because you can better showcase your expertise with a niche business, it’s easier to attract customers and attain a loyal following.
In the case of the fitness example above, parents are the target market – particularly parents whose children have been injured and need rehab, have children who are obese or those who want to get their kids into a fitness program at a young age.
Once you define your audience, create personas within that group to help paint a clear picture of the types of people you are marketing to. Assign the following key traits to your customer personas:
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Location
- Income
- Marital status
- Buying behavior
Use Your Expertise
When starting a focused niche business, use your knowledge and expertise to gain loyal followers. You are a specialist on the product or service you provide. Tackle the problems your ideal customers are dealing with and offer solutions. Connect with them on a personal level and turn them into devoted clients.
Carving out a specialized niche is the key to growing a dedicated customer base. Understand who your customers are and how you can serve them. Get people excited about your product and make them feel like they are a part of something bigger.
Identity Magazine is all about empowering women to get all A’s in the game of life — Accept. Appreciate. Achieve.TM Every contributor and expert answer the Identity 5 questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the above article. As a team, we hope to inspire and motivate ourselves and inspire you to get all A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? What are you still working on accepting?
To not have a second thought about what others think of me or my actions. Jack Kerouac once said, “Live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry.” So that’s what I’ve accepted, and that’s what I’m doing.
2. What have you learn to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? What are you still working on to appreciate?
I am an eternal optimist. I appreciate that I don’t often let things get me down for long and when they do, I find the light in the situation and rise above. I try to help people I encounter do the same.
3. What is one of your most rewarding achievements in life? What makes YOU most proud? What goals and dreams do you still have?
After years of hard work, I feel rewarded by finally having the chance to write for a living, something I’ve been working toward since I was a wee child. It has taken time to refine my craft, and I’ll never stop doing so. I have a children’s book on the horizon.
4. We all have imperfections, so we think. The truth–we are all perfectly imperfect. What are your not-so-perfect ways? What imperfections and quirks create who you are–your Identity?
Over thinking things has been something I have had to work on. “It is what it is,” you have to say, right? Quirks… I generally have this unicorns, rainbows and sunshine hippie mentality that can go a little overboard at times. But I like to do it on purpose to make people laugh.
5. “I Love My…” is an outlet for you to express and appreciate all the positive traits that make you…well… YOU! Sharing what you love about yourself will make you smile, feel empowered, and uplift your spirit and soul. (we assure you!) Identity challenges you to complete the phrase “I Love My…?”
I love my journey and the people I’ve encountered along the way, if only for a moment in time.
