‘I’m told I should create a niche. By narrowing down my potential customers won’t that reduce my opportunities?’
Sound familiar? Here’s a really good example:
We’ve just spent the last 3 months doing some fairly major work on our house. I say ‘we’, I should really say my husband, Geoff!
Geoff was beginning to run out of steam and wanted to get the job finished so we enlisted the help of a friend. It turned out that this friend has hidden talents. He spent many years in Switzerland and Germany on restoration projects. He’s an interior designer and extremely creative. He helped us replace the coving, hung difficult to work with feature wallpaper as well as painting and tiling. He, Neill, is embarrassed when I call him a multi-skilled craftsman. He should be turning work away.
Neill finds himself in the very common position when it comes to promoting his business and knowing who, what, how and where to target. Is it kitchens, bathrooms, extensions, interior design?
Home Office or Studio
In one of the tea breaks he told me about a cabin/studio/office he built in the grounds of a dentist practice that needed extra room. He really enjoyed planning the project, working with wood and finishing off the interior. Could this be his niche?
2011/12 saw the highest level of company start-ups since the last recession with over 450,000 new businesses registered. Many of these entrepreneurs will be working from home. Technology such as the Cloud has made it easier for employees to work flexibly from home. I’m willing to bet that a lot these home workers have considered creating their own office space in their garden where they can ‘go to work’ and concentrate. Obvious gut feelings need to be confirmed by research.
Neill has narrowed down his market so that he can stand out. He can focus on the needs of a defined group of potential customers. And communicate clearly how he can help them. He has:
• Identifiable target audience – businesses owners / employees working from home in the South East of England.
• Customers’ problems – no space in the house, working from the dining room table is not comfortable, distracting noises and unable to focus on business, not suitable for meetings, serviced offices not an option
• Neill’s solution – Create a separate work space in the garden where they can ‘go to work’ in the right frame of mind and focus on their business
• Accessing potential customers – There are a number of avenues but as a start, business networking events are full of home working business owners.
If you would like to create a work space in your garden you can contact Neill Silver on 07979 147348 or email him at silver@zipedidooda.com.
Are you struggling to create your niche? If so let me know.
Or have you created a niche? If so, how have you done this? I’d love to know.
