Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Finding Your Niche by Looking at Yourself
Most new business owners launch their business in an area they know little or nothing about. They do this because they don't recognize the expertise they already have.

Most of us naturally downplay our own talents, experience, and gifts as unimportant. We see those things that we feel we lack as necessary for success. But it's foolish to overlook the areas where you are especially gifted or knowledgeable. I had a vivid example of this years ago in high school.

I was not the most athletic of my classmates. I was usually one of the last chosen for any pickup games. But one thing I could do was jump.

Each year in gym class, the teachers would run us through a series of tests. One of those tests was a vertical jump test. And each year, I would top not just my gym class, but my entire grade level in jumping. My more athletic friends were baffled at how the last guy picked always stood at the top of the board in that one category year after year.

Many times, one of them would ask me, "How come you can jump so high?"

I was always baffled. "I just jump," I'd reply. I couldn't understand why they couldn't jump just as high or higher. To me, jumping high was as natural as breathing. I simply did it.

The same thing often happens when we look for areas of expertise to turn into a niche business. The things that are so deeply a part of our experience appear so natural to us that we figure that everyone else is as expert at them as we are.

I've heard of a woman who bemoaned the fact that she had no special skills or knowledge to start a business with. She had devoted over 20 years to raising a special needs son. She dismissed that 20 years of experience as something that was of no use to anyone but her. But a friend urged her to use her experience to help those who were just beginning to raise a special needs child. And she turned her knowledge into a very successful business.

Another man was a truck driver. Again, he figured he had no special knowledge to build a business around. But he knew enough about driving safety and about how to travel cheaply on the road to write a book about them. He wrote ebooks on both topics and enjoys a comfortable living from selling them.

So look close at hand to find your niche. Sometimes the best niches for you are in those things that come so naturally to you that you take them for granted.
Jeff