Found a niche, I don't know how to develop. The simplest and most specific method for choosing a niche for a business. You are an expert in your chosen niche

We often see clients who have really big solutions, but they are often forgotten because they are attempts to please everyone, and not working with one vertical. Focusing on a specific sector can help amplify your message to those with a real need for your business.

No matter what industry you are in, you must become an expert in your field. In doing so, you will also be able to identify your niche, which is integral to the growth of your business. If you are struggling to find your niche (or you don’t know what a niche is), you are not alone, this is something that many entrepreneurs and business owners struggle with. Here are some tips on how to find (and continually improve) your niche.

What is a niche?

Your company's niche is a specific segment of your target audience where you position yourself as an expert. It is also where you focus most of the marketing assets for your products and services - and where you can differentiate your company from the competition. It is a space where you truly “excel”, delivering value and delivering something that no one else can do as well.

Why is a niche important?

Defining your niche is the best way to gain a competitive edge over other companies. Whether you are a consultant, small business owner, or entrepreneur, there will always be competition. And the best way to beat your competitors is to be a leader in your field. Your niche (due to your experience, unique set of skills and services) is also the reason why potential customers should buy your product or service over someone else. Identifying a niche also helps you expand your knowledge of a specific area of ​​your industry. Not only is this a boon for your business, but it also helps you filter out clients who are not suitable. Once your niche is identified, only relevant customers come to the fore where your business is essential to them.

How to find your niche?

In order to open your niche, ask yourself and your team these key questions that will help determine the areas where you should focus as much as possible and ultimately they will bring you closer to your niche:

1. What are the typical use cases for your products? Make a list of your products and services offered to figure out how your products can be used.
2. What are the common pain points of your clients? Once you have an idea of ​​what your niche is, this is a great exercise to find out exactly who your target audience is. Find out what common challenges your customers have and use those pain points to define your niche.
3. What are your key differences? Why should someone buy your products or services and not your competitors? What sets you apart from the crowd of similar offers? Highlight and underline these differentiators.
4. What is your solution to pain points? Once you understand the pain points in your market, it's time to look for a solution. Keep this message as simple as possible, your solution should be crystal clear. The clearer it is to you, the clearer it will be to the client.
5. What is the result of your decision? People love statistics, they love quantifying good results. Find specific numbers and case studies to prove your solution is what they are looking for. For example, "We helped this company save X dollars, generate Y% more sales, and we hit Z in 7 days." Make it unforgettable.
6. Who is the opinion leader and who makes the decisions? Find out the key contacts you want to talk to and identify important aspects of your product or service for them. Do you have a solution to a personal or business problem for them? If not, find new clients. If so, contact these people and work to find more similar situations.
7. Where do you win? Find out who your main clients are and analyze them comprehensively. Find out as much as possible about each of them. Do they have something in common? What are their pain points? What do they have in common and how do they differ? Is there a trend among top customers? Determine your ideal customer profile.
8. Why do your customers love / need you? Don't just be a "nice to do business" company. You want your customers to need your product to help them become more successful. Find a way to change the current offer so that it becomes "this is exactly what we need". It can take some time to tweak and rework, but the result is worth it.

After you've asked yourself these questions, collect your answers and use them to carve out your niche. This will set you apart from your competitors and make the decision easier for your potential customers by proving to them that you are the best fit for their needs.

During this process, you may run into problems, but do not worry, this will give you the opportunity to open up new places of growth for your business. Even when you feel like you've identified your niche, come back to these questions and see if there is room for further improvement. A niche is specialized knowledge that needs to be constantly improved.

Many specialists dream of moving from hired labor to their own business - to start their own business. Fortunately, modern technologies allow almost everyone to provide services or sell goods both offline and on the Internet. The question of choosing a niche for business arises.

What does the majority do first? - Looking for business ideas on the Internet.

This is a failed strategy. If you consider starting your own business as a means of escape from reality (for example, the country has a difficult economic situation, or your specialty is not in demand on the labor market), your idea may fail.

When starting a business, it is important to develop in yourself 3 key qualities of an entrepreneur:

I. Be prepared for risks.

An entrepreneur is, first and foremost, a “person acting under risk conditions”. All categories of the self-employed population, which can be called entrepreneurs: traders, farmers, artisans, are at risk in one way or another. They buy at a known price and sell at an unknown price.

This is one of the first concepts of the concept of "entrepreneur" by the English economist Richard Cantillon.

Yes, this is a profession!

Like the profession of a doctor, artist or engineer, it must be taken seriously.

II. Be persistent. Perseverance makes you move forward despite setbacks. We wrote about 5 ways to be persistent.

III. Be technological.

So, let's move on to the technology for choosing a niche.

Niche selection technology

Don't start with someone else's business idea.

And don't start with your business idea, even if it seems brilliant and terribly promising to you.

Look at business through the eyes of the market.

After all, an entrepreneur is a profession aimed at satisfying the needs of customers and at the same time making a profit for oneself.

That's why key to success in building a business will the right choice of a niche.

A niche for a business is a foundation, the reliability of which will support the entire further existence and development of a business.

What is a niche in business?

A niche is the complexities, problems (“pains”) of potential customers that you, as an entrepreneur, need to solve.

When you open a new business, the first step is to carefully assess the market, its capacity, competitive environment and composition (conjuncture) - who, what, how and how much is selling.

Often, the arrogance of many entrepreneurs is expressed in the fact that they choose a niche, relying only on their own opinion and understanding of the market. Without any research.

But. If you do not conduct primary market analytics, then you are completely unprotected from risks.

As a result, after some time you will realize that the niche is not in demand.

Ask yourself and your companions 5 basic questions:

1. What do I like and what do I want to do?

You need to love your job, because over time: problems, difficulties or banal instability can get bored, and without love for the business, the business will collapse.

2. Will this business be interesting to me in 2-3 years?

The business must be built in the long term, if it was not initially conceived as a one-time project. Understanding the long-term nature of your endeavors will give strength to development.

3. Is my client motivated by pain, urgency, or strong emotion to buy my product or service?

If in this niche you see a real, urgent need for customers who only “sleep and think” how to solve this issue, then this is your niche.

4. Are customers looking for solutions?

Do potential customers have a drive to find a solution to their problem?

5. How many solutions does the market offer them? What do your competitors offer? How well do their offers meet the client's requirements?

All aspiring businessmen are faced, as a rule, with the same problems and mistakes.

6 main mistakes when choosing a niche:

1. Selected too "wide" niche - a large number of more professional competitors, competitors with an established brand, demand is almost equal to supply.

2. Selected too narrow niche - too few people are looking for solutions to a given problem.

3. The project is launched no testing- when the decision is made for the client, without testing the product for demand.

4. You have selected a product that nobody needs- take a “sober” look at what you want to sell.

6. Positioning not from the "pain" of clients, but starting from the product, but - such an approach is found all the time.

Now let's check how much your niche idea is supported by the consumer mass.

Monitoring consumer opinion

Go to forums, polls, conduct direct interviews on social networks or among acquaintances.

You must understand:

1. Is your offer interesting to the segment you are targeting;

2. What will be the main reason for contacting you (why clients will choose you);

3. What flaws in your idea people point out.

It is also recommended to conduct an analysis of key queries on http://wordstat.yandex.ru and calculate how many people actually turn to search engines with a query that is relevant to your offer. In the same place, in the "Requests similar to ..." block, you can find a useful hint for yourself.

For example, in the screenshot, a request for “training courses” is issued:

From the given example, we can conclude that people are actively interested in the topic of education, and we can assume that they are willing to pay for it. At the moment, this market in Ukraine is estimated at $ 500 million per year on average.

Once you've identified your niche, consider how to communicate your unique selling proposition to consumers.

Indicate your position

Your message should be clear, unambiguous and short. The simpler it is, the more likely it is that consumers will understand it correctly.

You just did a small but very an important investment for your future business, - the time you have spent reading this article will help you find the most interesting and demanded direction for your business. And its development will bring you not only great pleasure, but also a decent profit.

Save this mindmap for yourself to come back to when needed!

Anyone who wants to open a company should look for a market, a niche. A business niche is a small area that has the potential to generate income and, mastering which, you can build a company. A niche can be large or small. Usually, speaking of niches, they mean a small sales market. But you should start looking for niches that have the potential to grow into a midsize business.

When working on niche ideas, it's worth looking at a whole range of factors. The success of the niche depends on these factors. The easiest way to measure whether a niche will be profitable is to see how many copies of a product (product, service) can be sold and at what price. There are niches where you cannot sell a lot of a product, but the price of the product can be very high and, thus, the niche becomes attractive. Below we will look at 5 principles for choosing a niche.

1. See the market.
Seeing a potential market, niche is a constant challenge for entrepreneurs who want to start a new business. For some, it doesn't matter what exactly to produce or sell - bicycles and board games or tractors. It is important for other people to love the product - what they are selling. These are usually the majority. That is why you should choose a business niche not only on the principle that it is potentially profitable, but also because you like it.

Usually, professionals in a certain field have the skills necessary to create some things, carry out some work. These skills, in the future, can be used in order to start a business. Professionals in a particular field have a number of advantages - they see niches in their professional field and are able to recognize those areas where improvement is needed. In addition, such people usually have all the necessary skills and resources in order to start a business, and often without investment or. And even if a lot of investment is required, they can immediately estimate who can become an investor.

If you are a professional in some field, and you like doing your own thing, then you may think about finding a niche in the area where you are most competent. Today, most people start companies not for the money, but rather for the sake of doing things the way they like.

So, it's important to see the market. Better yet, have several ideas in stock at once, and from the same area. One will not fire - you can start trying the other. Having in stock several ideas from one area at once, you insure the risks of an entrepreneur. For example, it will be much easier for you to make a successful agricultural business if you have worked in this area and you have about 5-7 ideas for what could be improved. In this case, success will be much closer to you - you have experience in this niche, you see what can be improved, you start doing a project and - even if you have difficulties with this first business - you can still start another a company, only with a different idea, in the same niche.

Today builders, pharmacists, seamstresses can start their own small companies, seeing what needs are in the area where they are employed. If everything is calculated correctly, the process is properly established, then you can seriously compete with those companies that are old-timers in the market.

2. Describe the target audience. Let's say you've carved out a niche for yourself in your business. Now you begin the most interesting stage - testing your idea for viability. The viability of an idea is tested only in practice, in other words, it cannot be said in advance that an idea will be 100% successful or fail. There are certain rules that help reduce risks, but you can only be 100% sure of the correct choice of a niche in practice.

That is why it is worth starting the production of prototypes or just selling the product as soon as possible, in order to understand whether it is worth working on the product further or you need to go in search of other ideas. But initially it is important for us to understand who our target audience is - the clients on which we will test the business. Since we need clients to build a company, we should start looking for them. But in order to look for them, we need to understand who exactly to look for.

So, you need to be clear about who is the person who will buy your product. Describe the person's age, gender, income, preferences, environment, places where they are - you will get a picture drawn by your imagination and some facts on the basis of which you build guesses. Find 15-20 people who fit your profile. Then offer them your product. In case the product “does not work”, you will be able to determine - because of what: either your product is not needed at all, or you have incorrectly identified your target audience.

3. How much money is there in the niche? Repeat sales model. In case you have correctly identified your target audience, you have to calculate how much money is there in the niche? It may happen that the niche is very small, almost nothing can be earned on it. How much money are people willing to spend on your product? Will they come back for him again?

With food, cosmetics and all the products in the FMCG category, it's easy - if the customer likes it, he'll come back again. Much more difficult with other products. Especially when it comes to innovation, products that are difficult to sell. In this case, it may not be worth getting involved in creating a business in this area at all.

4. Cycles of the transaction. The cycle of the transaction is the period of time that elapses from the receipt of the client's request to the receipt of money in your account. The shorter the transaction cycle, the better for the entrepreneur. If a person comes to the store, then the transaction cycle is several minutes - from taking the goods from the shelf (or on the website of the online store) to paying. If you are dealing with specific building structures, then the transaction cycle will stretch for weeks or even months.

The margin can be large, but all the time while you are negotiating, preparing information for the client, you have to pay bills, employee salaries, and so on. Do you have enough resources and endurance to build such a business? When in doubt, it’s best not to take on projects where the transaction cycle is several weeks or even months.

5. What should be liked and disliked in business. We come to a very important point that is important for the project - will your business in the chosen niche be successful? Ultimately, success or failure largely depends on the person's personal involvement in the project. In any business for which investors give money, it is important that the initiator is strongly interested in the project.

Without participation, without a great desire to build a company, nothing will happen, no matter how hard you try. Personal attitude is of paramount importance. All this is connected, to a greater extent, with what you like to do and what you don’t. Probably, most people find it difficult to draw up accounting reports and submit documents to the tax office, fill the site with goods and do many other routine matters.

Today it is not a problem to outsource everything that you do not like to do. But, it is important to understand, what do you like to do, and is it possible to build a company on the basis of this? The entrepreneur is required to participate in product development, marketing and sales. Are you ready for this? Will you have fun selling your product?

Some say they don't care what kind of business they do or what they sell. We leave this approach to your discretion, but nevertheless, the personality of an entrepreneur, love for your business, the product that you make, is often much more important than the willingness to do any business, as long as it is a business and that it brings income.

Usually, an entrepreneur finds a niche in the area that worries him. A pregnant woman could not find affordable clothes of proper quality and design for herself and created her own store of goods for pregnant women. Someone faced the problems of admitting children to kindergarten. Someone is annoyed by the queues in supermarkets, and this prompts the idea of ​​alternative food stores.

The bike lover can't find the right model quickly. Someone's legs hurt from walking in heels all day long, and the idea of ​​comfortable fashionable shoes is born, and so on. Usually the sphere of solving common problems faced by millions of people every day is what it is like to find the perfect business niche. Usually those ideas that are not divorced from life () bring the greatest success. And those who built a company on the basis of an idea are usually people who themselves felt discomfort from some unresolved problems and wanted to solve them, first of all, for themselves.

Finding a niche to create a business is both simple and complex.

This may be related to your professional qualities and skills, as we described at the beginning. It could be something from the area of ​​solving problems that you yourself face on a daily basis. Either way, stock up on a list of several ideas and start working on them from the very first idea. If the experiment does not go well, you can move on to the next point - and so on until, finally, you find something that you are really interested in doing and that generates income.

Let's not idealize and talk about ideas that suddenly came in a dream: and so you woke up like that and ran to realize what you saw. It happens. But these are rather exceptions to the rule. A business starts with your personal choice. You decide to start your own business and clearly understand what you want to get in the end. Further a matter of technology and knowledge. But the very first step is the very choice. What exactly do I want to do?

In terms of online sales, the very first question you should ask yourself is what do I want to sell? The niche of the future business is your foundation, the basis for all subsequent actions. And if you lay a weak and dilapidated basis, chances are, after a while, you will be disappointed and suffer losses.

I saw many examples of successful niche selection, for example, Taxovichkof, which started offering nanny drivers with child seats in every car, or Airbnb, who created a site for safe rental housing, on the contrary, when people were in a hurry, they threw themselves into the pool. invested millions and ended up with nothing. So McDonalds several times tried to launch healthy food lines and even created a service for VIPs, however, they failed miserably: customers love the restaurant precisely because of its democracy and affordability.

A sober analysis of what you want to do in the future is the first thing that should worry you, not a beautiful website or brochures. So, before you start to realize yourself in a new niche, evaluate how your choice meets the following criteria:

1. You must solve people's problems with your product

What do people pay money for? For the pleasure and the opportunity to solve their pain. If you can't see well, you are looking for glasses. If you are hot, you are looking for a water or ice cream stand. Etc.

Take a look around and think about what problems you have that are still not so easy to deal with.

There was an interesting story in my practice: Once I was in a traffic jam in the summer, outside the window +30 degrees, the heat is terrible. Young guys knock on my window and offer magazines. What can I say, at that moment I would give everything for a bottle of water and snickers, so my body was exhausted. And I looked around and saw the same unfortunate faces in the neighboring cars.

What we did: hired guys who, in a daily traffic jam, offered drivers not magazines of questionable content, but water and snacks. The prime cost is minimal, we have recaptured the costs for the first few days of work.

What is the success of this event? The fact that we did not try to sell people what, in our opinion, they need. We offered what they need most now. And this example can be carried over to any niche. Look around, think about what people care about today, what they would like to change and improve.

Among the well-known novelties of the past year, one can single out - an application that beat the figure of 10 million downloads in the first week alone. And all why? People are fed up with the standard photo processing filters c. They were provided with an application that allows them to manipulate their pictures in the style of a famous artist. As simple as possible and to the point. The creators groped for the pain and created a product for it. This is the secret of any startup.

2. Your product must be of value

Do not try to suck the significance and importance of what you are doing from your fingertips. Be realistic about the situation.

Is your buyer willing to pay the amount for what you offer him. If they offer me water in a traffic jam, I am ready to buy it for an acceptable 50–100 rubles, but if the same product is offered to me for 500 rubles, I will endure it until the next gas station.

The same is with branded clothing - if you are trying to sell branded items in a small town, but at the prices of a Moscow department store - do not be surprised that your customers refuse such an expensive purchase and go to the same aliexpress, where you can buy a copy ten times cheaper. The quality will be lower, yes, but it is for this audience that the price is a decisive factor.

Be sure to analyze whether your customer is willing to pay for your product, no matter how good it is.

Here I can not help but give an example at the beginning of the path:

Attempts to create a computer for the whole family, costing several thousand dollars, failed miserably and cost Jobs his job. Only years later, the entrepreneur was able to return to the company and still complete his project, significantly reducing the cost of the final product.

If you want to create a consumer product, analyze how much your customer is willing to pay for it. I’m ready, not supposed to. Don't build sandcastles about people sweeping your product off store shelves. In an age of very fierce competition, you have a one-in-a-million chance.

3. Fast trade cycle: get profit immediately

Now we are talking about small business and opportunities for beginners and not only entrepreneurs to start their own business here and now. Therefore, the strategy should be as short-term as possible.

If you see your product being bought quickly, you can lower your markup to increase conversions. If you need promotion and, accordingly, financial and time costs, the price should rise. However, do not try to boil down, act honestly and openly.

For example, a successful startup once did not spend money on a car fleet and hiring employees. Basically, the company consisted of several people. They created an application where everyone could make money on taxi services. You register, you take an order, you get money. Everything is as simple and fast as possible. Today Uber is a global giant and an example of the most successful taxi company in recent years. And all thanks to the successful combination - low price and convenient service.

The consumer always reacts very sharply to two things: an artificially high price (“they want to make money on me”) and too low a cost (“poor quality product”).

4. Sell emotions, not goods

Remember, people want bread and circuses. Don't try to present your product too rationally, especially when it comes to entertainment. For example, Party-bus, popular in the last few years.

People were offered a replacement for big clubs, the opportunity to relax with friends in close company, but at the same time with all the club entourage, and even a ride around the city. In total, complex interactive for any occasion: wedding, birthday, bachelorette party. And when we think about these buses, the brightest images appear in our head: holiday, fun, smiles and other pleasant things.

Let's summarize. How to choose your business niche:

1. Think creatively and start with yourself: what excites you, what would you like to improve in the world around you?
2. Further - look around, are there many people around who face the same problem?
3. Are they willing to pay?
4. And then - try to evoke emotions and give the consumer not only a physical product, but also a memory.

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How to make the right choice of a niche from scratch? This is an urgent question for all novice businessmen. The choice of a niche is very important, because it determines how your business will develop, whether it will be profitable and promising. So, let's begin.

In this article, you will learn:

1. Why is it so important to choose the right niche for your business?
2. 12 approaches and 10 main steps for choosing a niche from scratch
3. What parameters should be used to make a choice
4. The easiest way to find a niche
5. What to do if you are completely confused with the choice
6. 3 common mistakes when choosing a business niche

Why choosing the right niche for your business is so important

Choosing the right niche is one of the main ingredients for success. Even if the supply is perfect, it can dissipate in the light of low demand if the direction is wrong.

The university curriculum and teaching materials in economics reads: "Produce a commodity previously unknown to the market and you will be rich." But in today's Russian economy, you will be successful only if you find a niche with high demand. It is he who is the distinguishing feature of the correctly chosen niche, and not the uniqueness, attractiveness, ethical standards.

The niche should be as narrow as possible. For example, a translator with extensive experience opens a translation agency. He will have many competitors. In order to occupy his niche, he must opt ​​for a narrower direction (engage in technical translations).

You need to be aware that not only the attractiveness of the niche is important, but also the high demand in it. After a long search, the businessman found an option for a unique, interesting offer to consumers in the field in which he is a professional. And the demand is low. Therefore, the procedure should be as follows:

1. Choosing an interesting niche.
2. Study of demand in it
3. Making the final decision and offering goods / services.

3 reasons why choosing a niche is not an easy decision

The difficulties in choosing a niche are due to the following reasons:

1. Doubt.

Doubt means not believing in the ability to cope with a topic. Doubt is the norm. You need to be wary of the statements: "This topic is a sure thing." When launching a new project, it is not known what awaits the entrepreneur in a few months.

Doubt can be paralyzing. You will be looking at many niche options, hoping to find the perfect one. But, alas, there are none.

Oddly enough, to get rid of a doubt, one must be wrong. Research and test will help you. Research does not guarantee your success. The test will allow you to see the real situation.

1. Inaction.

If a person is inactive, then he becomes a theorist. He has a lot of knowledge and skills, but the result is zero.

There is no effective way to combat inaction. If you do not want to change anything, then you will lie on the couch. In order to start working, you need a good incentive.

1. Theft.

Stealing is the same as sitting on a mine. Some people think that copying someone else's site is a good solution for their business. But every company is unique. Even if you opened the same beauty salon as nearby, you will have other clients as well as profit.

Every entrepreneur is different.

Not everyone can correctly interpret Picasso's statement: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

You can take someone else's business as an example, but pass its idea through your own worldview. Blind copying will not work. Doing business is more difficult than pressing CTRL + C.

12 approaches to choosing a niche from scratch

Approach # 1. Logics

A logical approach to choosing a niche implies the need to evaluate it in terms of logic and numbers. Only calculations will make it possible to find out whether the profitability of the business will be high, what the profit will be, whether it will be possible to scale the enterprise.

Approach # 2. An experience

With the help of a business, you can turn the accumulated experience into a product that is in demand in the market, and receive income from its sales. Experience cannot be ignored.

Approach # 3. Hobby

If you spend all your free time doing what you love, then it is better to build a business on your hobby. There is no need to be ashamed that you are making a profit from an activity you enjoy doing. You should enjoy this niche.

Approach # 4. People

When choosing a niche, be guided by the people around you. Look at the contacts on your phone, think of your friends and family in a different way: maybe one of them is the perfect option to become your partner or supplier. The starting point of your entrepreneurial activity can be a person.

Approach # 5. A family

Why is a family business a great option? What obstacles may be encountered on the way to realizing your own potential in a family business, and how can they be overcome?

If one of your family members is a businessman, then a great option is to become their partner. It is highly likely that developing a family business will be your life's work. Many successful companies are family-owned (IKEA, Toyota, Ferrero or Auchan).

Approach # 6. Barrier to entry

There are barriers to entry for any business. In the same niche, the barrier for different businesses may be different. Your task is to find such a niche, the barrier to entry into which will be insignificant for you.

Approach # 7. The plea of ​​the market

When choosing a niche, you may not notice that it is right under your nose. Friends and acquaintances ask you to do something, sell, order, take ... Listen to their requests and make the right choice of a niche. Perhaps, by starting to sell your product or service, you will satisfy the needs of others?

Approach # 8. Innovations

An innovative idea is not necessarily a perpetual motion machine or a new energy source. The profitability of a niche based on innovation will be high if the author of the idea learns to make money. As a rule, scientists and creators of innovative technologies do not know how to do this.

Submit your application

Approach # 9. Model

There is no need to develop a new product from scratch. If there are already popular products on the market that you would also like to use, then stop your choice on them, modify them, make them more perfect, etc. If consumers are interested in your product / service, then be sure that you made the right choice of a niche.

Approach 10. Future

Would you start a business selling videotapes? And why?

When choosing a niche, you need to understand what will be in demand among consumers in both the short and long term. What goods and services will not lose their relevance in a few years?

Approach # 11. Benefit, pain

Look at those around you. Everyone knows what pain is. If you manage to rid people of it, eliminate the cause of their irritation, satisfy needs, then you can gain a foothold in the market and form a client base.

Approach # 12. Just

What if you don't have a reason to start a business in any of the niches? If you don't have an explanation, why is it worth doing bricks production, construction, catering or upholstered furniture?

Choosing a niche from scratch: 10 main steps

Stage 1. Choosing an affordable niche in the market

You must be able to fill a niche. There is no need to reinvent the wheel at this time. Market demand shaping is not easy. If you want to market your product, first test how competitive it is.

Stage 2. Defining your target audience

First of all, you need to decide on the market, designate the target audience segment, and then choose a product or develop a new one. Your task is to become one with consumers, so as not to get lost in guessing what they want. It is impossible to make a forecast of product sales without preliminary testing.

Stage 3. Analysis of potential customers

Large fish in a pond have a better position than small fish in the sea. Conduct a comparative analysis of you and the clients in the focus group. The objects of analysis can be: experience, habits, hobbies, interests, the most frequently purchased goods, services.

Stage 4. Analysis of competitors

It is necessary at the very beginning of your activity. In Yandex, enter keywords for the selected product in the search bar. After analyzing the search results, make a list of the 10 largest competitors. Evaluate their websites, their sales methods, order forms, delivery service. You can pre-order, etc.

Stage 5. Increasing the competitiveness of the product and choosing a niche for business

Go to the page www.wordstat.yandex.ru on the "budget forecast" tab, enter your keywords and analyze the statistics of the search engine by the number of impressions per month. You will be able to understand if the sales will go well or not. The "budget forecast" tab allows you to view the cost of one click after entering the keywords. This helps you determine your advertising budget.

Stage 6. Development of the slogan and concept of your brand

It is necessary to fit the description of the main advantage of the product in one short phrase. For example, Apple has a concept - “Think globally”, MTS - “You know what you can”. On the open spaces of the Runet, you can familiarize yourself with various slogans and develop your own.

Stage 7. Determination of the niche pricing policy

If the client is solvent, then the likelihood of complaints from him is minimal. He almost never asks questions and rarely returns the goods.

Step 8. Using the product resale model

This is a classic. Most start-up entrepreneurs, especially online store owners, choose this model. You make bulk purchases of goods and sell them at a premium. This method is simple, but you won't earn much from it. The first profit is in the hands of a businessman within a few weeks after the start. But due to strong competition, there is a rapid drop in demand.

The exceptions are cases when an agreement for the sale of a product is concluded with its manufacturer. This is an official distributor. The resale model is good if you are dealing with secondary goods, that is, those that started to be released after the main one: they do not need promotion. For example, it could be iPad cases.

Stage 9. Testing

The most important stage. It helps to determine whether the product is competitive, whether there is a high demand for it. In addition, its implementation will allow you to understand which products should be left in the assortment basket, and which ones should be disposed of.

Ask a potential client a question: "How do you feel about buying such and such a product?" The person will respond positively about him, and you will make an offer: "I have it, and I can sell it to you." Most likely, the person will refuse in a polite manner. But, it is by offering to make a purchase immediately that you will be able to understand exactly how viable the product is.

Before the internet came along, testing was done by posting ads in magazines. Consumers were encouraged to call if they wanted to buy a particular product. Analyzing the number of calls and the reaction of potential customers, we decided whether to continue the release / purchase of the product or refuse it.

The Internet has made testing much easier. Now you can use tools such as Yandex Direct, Google Adwords. And the sales opportunities through social media are virtually endless.

It will help you:

• Studying the activities of competitors.
• Testing keywords with wordstat.
• Creation of an attractive sales proposal, development of a concept, product and company slogan.
• Creation of a website with a small number of pages and placement of short advertising in social networks, as well as contextual advertising.
• Elimination of products that are not selling well; analysis of goods with the greatest attractiveness and investments in the most expensive of them, as well as in marketing activities, their scaling.

Step 10. Using a 100% money back guarantee

This tool is very effective. Guarantee 100% money back to customers. Come up with attention-grabbing slogans, for example: "We will deliver the order in half an hour, otherwise - lunch at our expense", etc.

What are the parameters for choosing a niche from scratch

Listed below are the options for combing out a niche and choosing the best option:

1. Margin- the difference between the purchase price and the selling price. If the products are inexpensive, then the margin should be at least 200-300%, not 30%. And if the product is expensive, then the margin will be already 10%.
2. Seasonality- the dependence of sales volumes on the season or any events. If you are new to the business, there is no need to settle for seasonal products.
3. Product dimensions. They determine the place of storage of products, the method of delivery. It is better for beginners to choose niches, the dimensions in which will not create difficulties.
4. Estimated delivery time. If the product is popular, then ideally it should be delivered within 24 hours. If your choice fell on a rare product, then the delivery time will not matter much.
5. Purchase price. Knowing it, you can calculate the amount of the initial investment. Agree that purchasing 10 TVs will cost much more than purchasing a batch of 100 smartphone cases. And the profit can be the same.

There are other parameters as well. But these are the main assistants in choosing a promising niche from scratch. Make a table in which you evaluate all the parameters for each niche. The variants with the most pluses can be sent for testing.

The easiest business niche choice

All numerous types of business activities are divided into 3 main groups:

• Production.
• Trade.
• Service.

Any business can be classified into one of these categories. Work in two or three directions is also not excluded. For example, a letterhead company may have a network of retail outlets to sell them and provide filing services. Such a business organization is most profitable, since intermediaries are excluded from the chain.

1. Production.

The riskiness of business in this area is due to its relative sluggishness. Converting a company takes a lot of money and training is time consuming.

The scale of the enterprise is very important: the larger the production capacity, the lower the production cost. But with an increase in the volume of output, the clumsiness also grows. In this regard, many niches appear for organizing a business from scratch in manufacturing.

1. Trade.

The consumer must receive his product, therefore the “bought and sold” chain attracts novice businessmen, because it seems simple to them. At present, the density of selling organizations is so high that it is necessary to search for either a new product or new markets for an existing one.

A hint will direct your search: first, during the year, the Moscow market saturates, after which a new product appears on the counters of the province. And the Moscow market is one year behind the European and American ones.

1. Services.

This area is a space for creative people. When a person is full, he thinks about comfort. Any business must be tasked with meeting customer needs. This feature is most pronounced in the service sector. There are many free niches in this category of entrepreneurship in our country.

The reason for this is the lifting of the ban on private entrepreneurship after the collapse of the USSR. Imported goods poured into the Russian market, but it never fully filled with quality services.

Overview of promising areas of activity in 2017

In recent years, there have been changes in the list of popular high-margin businesses. Let's take a look at the best ones:

Mobile applications

Smartphones are not considered a luxury for a long time, but only a necessity. Almost every company develops its own mobile application to make it easier for consumers to access their products or services.

In the modern world, a person daily uses various applications to access mobile banking and taxi services.

It is quite understandable that there are plenty of niches in the field of business related to the development of mobile applications. Moreover, this business is profitable.

Website adaptation for smartphones

Statistics show that over 70% of people use mobile Internet. That is, we can assume that the demand for mobile versions of sites will only grow in the near future. If you start a business in this area, the question of choosing a niche for a business from scratch will no longer worry you.

Lead generation

The data of opinion polls indicate that more than 50% of visitors to many Internet resources come to them from social networks. That is, they are an important link in lead generation.

There are many freelancers currently working in this niche, but starting a business in it is not only feasible, but also desirable. Pay attention to this niche.

Handmade

There is now a great demand for environmentally friendly and handcrafted products. Everyone wants to have a one-of-a-kind or custom-made item, despite the fact that the cost of such goods is usually very high.

If you are a creative person, then feel free to occupy this niche. You will not have competitors in the form of large enterprises. Besides, handmade is a niche with high margins. What can you do production?

Here are the main areas of business:

• Clothing. If you have sewing skills, then you can open an atelier and sew clothes for individual orders. Its demand is high among those who follow fashion, and those whose figure is non-standard.
• Accessories. It can be exclusive leather belts, bags, wallets, wallets. These items will be unique and expensive.
• Bijouterie. If you know how to work with polymer clay and are friends with sculpture, then making jewelry is a good option for you.
• Christmas decorations. Before the New Year, the demand for designer decorations for Christmas trees is growing. They are very original and have a special energy.
• Dolls. Handmade dolls are notable for their special beauty and are of interest primarily to collectors. Expensive materials are used for their manufacture. Tilda dolls designed for play are easier to make.
• Interior items. Most people like to complement the interior of the house with unique and exclusive items. Such people become clients of handicraft production of interior items.

This list is far from complete. The demand for any handmade product will always be high.

Medical services

The most popular areas of this niche are manual therapy and massage. It is not uncommon for patients who are disillusioned with traditional medicine to turn to chiropractors or masseurs.

Large investments in such a business are not needed, and it is quite profitable.

In addition, private clinics or specialist reception rooms are quite popular. To open a business in this niche will require significant investments: you will need to hire highly qualified specialists and purchase the necessary equipment. However, this area is highly profitable, so the investment will pay off quickly.

Trade in food

There are people who want even in a crisis. Therefore, the profitability of the grocery niches is clear. If you trade in low-cost, high-quality products (such as meat or confectionery), you will not have a shortage of customers.

Delivery

If you have a car, it makes sense to organize a business for the delivery of any goods. These can be products from a supermarket or ready-made meals from any cafe or restaurant. If you correctly organize a business in this niche, you can get a good income.

Education

If you have enough knowledge and experience in a particular field, you can organize training courses. Become a tutor for students of schools, universities in any subject, open foreign language courses. A good option for psychologists and managers is to conduct educational trainings.

You can write and publish books, organize seminars, advise the population on various issues.

Repair

Smart owners are in no hurry to throw out broken things and buy new ones. After all, you can repair them and use them for several more years.

If you have experience in repairing household appliances or electronics, you have enough knowledge for this, then stop the choice on this niche. Maybe you are a specialist in reinstalling operating systems, installing various software? Organize a business in this niche direction.

Lack of the ability to repair something is not a reason to give up starting a business. You can rent premises and hire qualified personnel.

This niche also includes services for the renovation of premises. Renting an office when organizing a business in this direction is not required. The main thing is to gather a team of workers.

If you are completely confused about choosing a niche

3 common mistakes of choosing a niche for a business from scratch

Many aspiring businessmen are distinguished by their willingness to devote all their time and energy to business. In this case, possible risks are ignored. Let's consider what mistakes are most likely when choosing a niche:

1. Do not lightly grab onto what you like or think is promising. The peculiarity of the Russian economy is the lack of a guarantee that your product will be in demand if you conduct business at random. A business will be successful if you make the right niche choice. It requires consistency, accurate knowledge of the needs of its target audience. Thinking through your sales funnel and marketing strategy is based on digital metrics.
2. The second common mistake is choosing a niche from scratch based only on your own understanding of the market. What you think is profitable, relevant and promising is not always so. Build on analysis and statistics.
3. Even at the first stage, an entrepreneur's mistake is the development of the "packaging" of the business to the detriment of the strategy of its formation and development. Often, novice businessmen develop beautiful websites and landing pages, resorting to the services of the best designers, programmers and copywriters, although they do not have a strategy for building a profitable business.