Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Reconsideration
I had to rethink a position of mine today. I always encourage people to choose a niche for their business from the activities and things they love. Like many, I encourage them to list their hobbies, their interests, their existing passions.

But maybe there's more to it than that.

I got a newsletter today that challenged that position. The writer, James Jones, told of a woman who wrote to him, frustrated because she had done the whole list thing and found that whatever potential business niches she put on her list were either hopelessly oversaturated or not in enough demand to make a viable niche business.

Jones scolded her for buying into what he called the "myth of passion," the idea that a person's niche business must be something that they have an existing passion for. He pointed out how one of his first successful niche businesses was in selling videos on how to make purses out of cigar boxes.

He didn't even know that such a hobby existed until he stumbled across it while researching another possible niche. But when he saw how many searches there were for it and how few resources there were to feed this growing demand, he developed a passion for meeting this unmet need.

I guess that the whole list thing is an attempt to get people looking at their own backgrounds, the knowledge and resources they already have, and use those things to give them a head start on their own business. Too often, when we try to change the direction of our lives, we diminish the value of what we have to offer others and mistakenly feel that anything we have or know or love won't be "good enough" to satisfy others. Deep down, we fear that in order to be successful, we must make ourselves appear to be something totally different than what we are. And in doing so, we fail to use the unique talents that we are on this earth to use for the benefit of others.

I still disagree with Jones' argument that you should first find a niche that needs to be filled and then develop a passion for it. Neither the list-builders nor those who find a passion in filling a need that no one else was filling hold the "right" answer.

Because the answer of "what kind of business should I start" lies neither in finding a niche that fits our passions nor in finding a passion to fit some arbitrary niche. It lies in finding where your unique background, knowledge, and skills intersect with what others want and need. You may find that by searching your existing passions. Or you may find that by stumbling upon a quirky and previously unknown niche.

But whatever direction you approach it from, one thing remains the same: you sell the best what comes from who you are.
Jeff