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Niche Thyself (from chapter 2 in the Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki)

When F.W. Woolworth opened his first store, a mechant on the same street tried to fight the new competition. He hung out a big sign: "Doing business in this same spot for over fifty years." The next day Woolworth also put out a sign. It read: "Established a week ago: no old stock." - Peter Hay, The Book of Business Anecdotes

"Many entrepreneurs try to avoid market niches. They are afraid of getting locked out of important sectors, submaximizing sales, and putting all their eggs in one basket," says Guy Kawasaki. He then goes on to use Microsoft as an illustration of a company that started in a niche and grew from there. "You might think that to build the next Microsoft, you'd have to launch a multiprong attack. Nothing could be further from the right approach. To build the next Microsoft, you have to start in a small niche, establish a beachhead*, and (with luck) move out from there. "

Guy also explains how as a start up we are trying "to start a fire with matches not flamethrowers" (see the design on the book's cover).

In the book is a diagram that illustrates where we should aim to postition ourselves in business: to have the ability to provide a unique product or service where customers most appreciate us because we provide this unique product or service they strongly desire.

What can you do to position yourself? And do make sure you are the one doing the positioning, not a PR company, nor the let the market control how you are postitioned (even if you can't control it completely). How can you niche and grow rich?

One more note on finding a niche that Guy spoke of in the previous chapter: polarizing people. You'll find, if you haven't already, that when you create a product, service, blog, etc. that people love, that others may hate you. The goal is not for everyone to love you necessarily, but to drive people to make a decision about you one way or the other. I have heard Robert Kiyosaki talk about this: 33% of people will get what he is saying, 33% will hate what he is saying, and about 33% will be indifferent. His customer base, who he focuses on are the 33% who "get it". He has a niche.

Continuing our study of The Art of the Start tomorrow...

*A beachhead, in this context, means a market that is small enough so that larger competitors are not already going after it, and big enough so that if you're successful, you can reach critical mass and profitablility with it.

For more about Guy Kawasaki, check out Art of the Start.com (his site) as well as Guy's blog