Step one in developing your business is to determine who your market is. In other words, develop a niche.
It’s a common mistake for new business owners to say “my product can benefit everyone, so, I’ll market to everyone”. If your target is everyone, chances are you’re message will reach no one. So, the process goes something like this:
I sell a product that teaches “how to” manage real estate tenants.
Initial Thought: my market is everyone interested in investing in real estate – too broad.First Refinement: my market is all real estate owners – still too broad.
Second Refinement: my market is all multi-unit owners and people thinking of becoming landlords – better but still too broad.
Third refinement: my market is all actual landlords – perhaps.
Forth Refinement: my market is all landlords with problem tenants. Good!
Fifth refinement: my market is all landlords who have evicted a tenant who damaged their property – still ok, but probably too narrow.
Sixth refinement: my market is all landlords from New York City who have evicted a tenant who damaged their property – unnecessarily narrow.
From the above, probably the forth version is the best niche for you. It’s easily identifiable. You can reach (contact) these individuals (just get a list from courts of every landlord who has started an eviction proceeding in the last 3 to 6 months. You understand their problem (pain) and you can solve it (the information in your course.). Once you define your niche, you are on your way!
Patrice developed a specialized niche with her sewing talent. Seeing that many business people like to display their corporate logo on things like golf shirts and jackets, she began to offer to embroider corporate logos on clothing.
For about $5 per item (more for larger logos) she can do about 15 items per hour. That’s $65 an hour for doing something she loves. And, I taught her that putting the logo on clothing makes the total cost tax deductible to the company – a marketing tip she put to good use in attracting business clients.
As a short term stock market trader, Steven found himself working on his computer and spending a lot of “down” time waiting for trades to conclude.
He began surfing the web and noticed that more and more companies were using the Internet to sell their products. He learned as much as he could about marketing, especially on the Internet.
Then, he set up several joint ventures with companies that produced products and services he felt he could successfully promote. Not only does Stephen love what he does, he has more than tripled his income with this new talent – all using “down” time.
Karen loves the adventure of travel, seeking the unusual and exotic places of the world to visit. Her current interest is castles. Recently, she went on a three week tour of Europe photographing and writing about these incredible historic structures.
In our work together, she learned all about writing and self-publishing a book. Her research (travel, cameras, equipment, etc.) is not only fun, it’s a tax deductible expense.
Dr. Perry is a chiropractor with a very successful practice. He considers his work a “calling” more than a business. He also has a love of horses, raising and training them on his backyard farm.
Working together, we helped Perry develop his passion for horses into a substantial business. This made his hobby both a completely deductible expense as well as a source of profits!
As a teenager, Matt Bacak had a successful paper route. Over the years, he got to know his customers, their families and even their business travel and vacation patterns. One day while delivering and collecting money from a customer, he realized that the husband’s car was not in the driveway. Looking around, he also noticed that the lawn was a little higher then usual.
He offered to return later that day to cut the lawn for a fee of $20. A new business was born.
Within a few months, Matt was busy with his new landscaping business – too busy in fact. So he took the next step. He recruited some of the other neighborhood kids – kids that wanted money to buy baseball cards and music tapes. He offered to pay them $5 an hour to mow lawns, learning that it took an average of 1 hour per lawn making a profit of $15 per lawn per week for Matt. Another entrepreneur was born. Matt has since taken his love of business into many other areas: he is the co-author of a best selling book, a speaker and seminar promoter. You can learn more from him at Powerfulpromotor.com.
These are just a few examples of how you can find a niche and "scratch" it.