A mistake to avoid when creating a market niche for your business
When friends & family aren’t good for business
A common mistake I tend to see, particularly with start-up businesses, is that they typically define their market niche or ideal client as the people they like to hang out with and have fun with i.e. family or friends.
While starting out in business, marketing and encouraging your friends and family to buy from you is a great tactic to build your confidence, gain that all important social proof and to generate some form of revenue, I’m encouraging you to quickly broaden your approach for the long term success of your business.
It’s time to broaden you approach to you niche
Why? Because, quite often the ones we’re closest to, we tend to look the other way, tolerate things we otherwise wouldn’t tolerate and we’re more likely to “bend the rules” for them.
An example I like to give is someone starting up a new restaurant.
At first, encouraging your family and friends to dine at your restaurant is a great strategy. It allows you to trial your staff and menu, build your confidence and most importantly build the hype around your restaurant and iron out any inconsistencies or issues there may be. On the flip side, while friends and family are dining at your restaurant you’re more likely to give them larger portions of food and even a discount on price, both costing you money.
While in the short term this may be ok, in the long term it’s not an effective or efficient way to run your business and your bottom line is going to suffer substantially.
What does it take to run a business efficiently and effectively?
To run a business efficiently and effectively you need to make sure you have certain boundaries that you are adhering to the vast majority of the time and you have really good hygiene in who you are working with. With family and friends, this is often hard to sustain so I encourage my clients to look beyond family and friends when defining their ideal client and the market niche in which they’ll operate.
How to define your niche:
Research market demand and look into potential gaps in the market that you can fill.
Conduct market research to understand your target audience, potential competitors and your potential product or service offering.
Evaluate your expertise by assessing your knowledge and expertise in various areas. Finding a niche that matches your expertise will give you a competitive advantage.
Consider what problems or pain points exist in your area of expertise or interest. Finding a niche that allows you to provide valuable solutions can set you apart.
Don't be afraid to experiment with different niches to see what resonates with you and your audience. Starting small and testing the waters can help you discover what works best.
Pay attention to feedback from your peers, customers, or audience. Their input can help you refine your niche and offerings.
Finding the perfect niche may take time and experimentation. Be patient and willing to adapt as you learn more about what works best for you.
By all means, I’m not saying to not encourage family and friends to buy from you, just ensure you are broadening your reach and really diving into who will benefit the most from the product or service you are offering.
You can watch a video I filmed recently on this topic by clicking here.