Small Business Enterprise - SBDC September 2021

Finding your business niche

What does your customer base really want?

When starting a business, it is important to differentiate yourself from your competition. To achieve this, entrepreneurs should find a specific business niche to target.

A business niche is a specialized area of a broader business market that your business serves. Finding a niche is important, as it not only helps create stable revenue streams, but will also help build a loyal customer base.

An example of a business niche would be a clothing company who specifically sells clothing for hiking, as they would be focusing on the specific market of hikers.

Some Steps to Take

Once a business niche is created, the following steps are important to build a successful strategy.

First, a target market/audience must be selected. As described in the above niche example, hikers would be the target audience.

Then further research should be conducted on this customer base. Entrepreneurs need to understand what this customer base desires and what can be done to possibly lessen their frustrations with their competitors or other similar products.

While researching the customer base, the entrepreneur might even find an underserved need of this base. For example, maybe when researching hikers, they discover there aren’t many retail options that also accommodate children of hikers.

After these steps, it is important to create a business plan. This will help define what exact products will be sold, the ideal customer and a pricing model. As part of the business plan, it is then important to plan your marketing efforts. It is important to find a marketing strategy that fits your business niche, as various marketing strategies work for different types of business industries and niches.

For help creating a business plan and creating your business niche strategy, the Rockford SBDC is here to help! Contact us for a consultation at 815- 316-4301 or sbdc@rockfordchamber. com.

Vince Chiarelli owns Chiarelli Consulting and is a consultant with the Illinois Small Business Development Center at the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.