How do you find the optimal business niche?

One of the biggest stumbling blocks new business owners have is failing to define their niche. Everything starts with defining your niche. After all, how can you begin to find your customers with awesome marketing if you don’t even know who they are?

Before you do anything else, you must find your business niche. Defining your business niche will be crucial to your success as an entrepreneur.

The right niche helps you differentiate.

If you provide business services to other businesses, known as B2B, then you know that there is stiff competition out there. A quick web search of your service might throw up hundreds of providers in your area. This is when many, especially those new to the business, start to feel overwhelmed. But you have to think about why someone might hire you rather than one of those others.

Becoming a specialist in one area is how you can set yourself apart from the competition. Essentially, you can’t begin to differentiate your business without finding your business niche. You could try to sell your services to a huge market, but you don’t want to be spread too thinly. You might just choose one industry on which to focus your service. Or, to look at it from a different angle, you could focus on one area within your field. The main idea is that you will no longer be seen as a generalist. You will be seen as knowing one thing really well, an expert.

There is no marketing strategy without a niche.

Companies that fail to market themselves profitable will ultimately fail. You need to be able to get the best bang for your buck and you need it done quickly. But how are you going to achieve this?

Think from the perspective of a potential client. As a client, I need your service and so I turn to Google. What I get is a huge list of providers. “Great”, I think, “so many to choose from”. But how am I going to narrow it down? I know my business and my business needs and so I start looking at the short descriptions until I see one that is aimed at my need. I’ll click on a few of those and quickly scan the top of the page to narrow it down further. Only then will I look deeper into the website to find out about pricing, etc. This all takes a matter of minutes. Unless there is absolutely nobody serving my particular business niche, I will not choose a generalist. I want a specialist!

The takeaway lesson is that you need to define your client and, therefore, your niche. If you want to stand out, make this your first priority.

How to find your business niche?

So what is the best way to find your business niche? Ask yourself a few questions about what you will and won’t do. Also think about where your experience lies. Then start to think about who could actually use your services to better their business. You may have a target market in mind but think of a way in which you can narrow this down. And, don’t forget to think from the perspective of that client. What do they want to see when they search for your service?

The following list will help you find your business niche:

  • Are you passionate about this niche? Does the product or service you are offering gets you excited? If you are doing something you don’t really enjoy doing, you will less likely to succeed in business.
  • Do your market research. Who are you selling to?
  • Are there underserved markets you could target?
  • Don’t try to sell to a market too large. When you try to sell to a large market you are looked at as a generalist. People want to work with experts not generalists.
  • Study your competition. Are you going to be able to outcompete your competition? What can you do better than your competition?
  • Can you make enough money within your niche? You might find a great niche, but if there are not enough paying customers your business will fail. Make sure that the niche is large enough to support your business.
  • Beyond revenue focus on profits. Determine that your niche enables you to run a profitable business. If you are up against companies that can afford to operate without profit, you might not be able to compete against them. There are companies that can afford to run unprofitably just to eliminate their competition. If you find that in your niche, you are better off targeting another niche.

Once you’ve done all of the above you will be in a better position to get your message to the right people. Find your business niche and you can target your audience with a more effective marketing strategy and keep the right people on board with you.