Finding your natural niche market

Many, many businesses start out trying to be everything to everyone.  When asked who their target customer is, the reply is invariably:  everyone! 

"But you don’t understand!  EVERYONE can benefit from my products and services!" 

Oh, I do understand.  Over at the Women Owned Business blog, she (I assume it’s a she…. the blog owner doesn’t give much personal info on the blog’s about page) gives a GREAT example of th in the post :Entrepreneur Strategy for Women Business Owners – Your Niche Market

The more specialized, the easier it is to stay focused AND be effective. Think of it like MEDICINE.

A general practitioner needs to know a little about everything. A pediatrician needs to know all about children. A pediatric specialist focuses all their reading, conferences and training on ONE main area of children’s medicine. 

Even when it comes to medicine, even the general practioner STILL can benefit from targeting a niche in the market. 

My primary care physician is a homeschooling mother of three.  Her practice in the area is relatively new, yet she’s finding more and more homeschooling parents "discovering" her practice.   Word of mouth is a WONDERFUL way to build ANY business and I’m sure that her name comes up at MANY homeschooling group meetings in the area.   Even though my physician doesn’t "officially" target homeschooling parents, she’s found that her style of practicing medicine works well with homeschooling parents. 

That’s the beauty of targeting a niche market.  Word of mouth marketing happens NATURALLY for those who tightly target a niche!

What many beginning small business owners fail to realize is targeting your niche market doesn’t mean thinking small at all.

Our county’s estimated 2006 population is 252,724  and of those 40,435 are between the ages of 5 and 18.  I’ve heard somewhere that 1in three children in Florida are homeschooled, so to find the number of homeschooled children in our county, merely divide 40, 435 by 3 and you’ve got 13, 478 homeschooled children in our county.  

I haven’t asked, but I’m pretty sure that if my physician attracted just 10% of the homeschooled children in our county to her practice (13,478 X .10 = 1,347) plus their parents, she would probably have to consider closing her practice to new patients.

However, if she were NOT to tightly target her "marketing" by sharing her status as a homeschooling mother…. well, then there would be no "reason" for her homeschooling mothers to recommend her to their friends!   "She’s a GREAT doctor!" doesn’t motivate as well as "She’s a GREAT doctor who ALSO HOME SCHOOLS HER BOYS!"

Niche marketing doesn’t mean thinking small… it means using laser like precision to carve out an audience.  Instead of competing with every other doctor in the county, my physician finds herself in the position as the ONLY homeschooling physician in the area! 

What’s your natural niche?