Katrina's Journey to Financial Freedom

In the world of marketing, your niche is that unique corner of the market place that belongs to you. It is the people you serve, their problems you help solve plus your unique solutions to these problems, all rolled into one. In my work with women small business owners I am strongly in favour of niching the small business and operating as a specialist. Following are 7 reasons why:

1. Niching fosters expertise. It allows the small business owner to focus on a clearly defined group of people with clearly defined problems, creating their own unique solution to these problems. This specialization fosters expertise. Expertise allows the business owner to intimately understand their people, problems and solutions and become highly effective, providing increasing value. Expertise also opens the door to media attention, further business opportunities, attracts clients and commands higher fees. Everyone loves an expert and would favour them over a generalist due to their high level of specialization, knowledge and experience.
2. Niching allows for more focused, targeted and therefore more effective marketing for the small business owner. This increased focus and targeting means the entrepreneur is better able to communicate with and gain the trust of their target market, since they have a more intimate knowledge and experience of their needs.
3. Niching makes marketing more cost-effective for the small business owner. Rather than mass-marketing to everyone and connecting with no one in particular, the niched business can direct their budget at the segment of the market that is most likely to need what they offer. With a niche you know where your customers are, what they want and how they want it, making for cost-effective delivery.
4. Niching makes product or service development easier and more economical. Research can be directed at specific people and problems, resulting in targeted solutions for those who need them.
5. Niching allows the business owner to build a recognizable brand which its target market can come to know, like and trust. This makes marketing more effective and facilitates more sales, essential for the well-being of the business. Also, with a recognizable brand the business is able to stand out and build brand loyalty in the market place.
6. Niching allows the business to become client-attractive. You become known for and distinguished by your expertise. This means your target market knows exactly what you do, who you help and your differentiating factors. They are then able to recognise themselves as people you can help, so they come to you, quite often pre-sold. And because they understand what you do, they are able to tell others about you. Therefore, niching can help you build your own unpaid sales force, advocating for you in the market place.
7. Niching strengthens the business against competition. They may be in the same line of business as you and even serve the same target market. However, with your own clearly defined corner of the market place you become the only fish of your kind in the pond! With a niche you have your unique difference and expertise which means you have something to offer that your competitors do not.

For help choosing a profitable niche, standing out in the market place and attracting your ideal client the author has created the Get Clear, Get Known, GET CLIENTS System™. To find out more about this system and to chat with her about your challenges getting clients you are invited to look around her website and to book a complimentary, obligation-free session with her.

Oma Edoja is a UK-based business coach. She helps women small business owners attract a steady stream of clients using feminine, value-based strategies. If you are a female small business owner and worry about getting clients, or having to do marketing you do not enjoy, let Oma show you how to do it right! When you do it right, it's fun, and gets results! You can start by downloading Oma's free ebook: 12 Reasons Women Business Owners Struggle to Get Clients (Avoid these 12 mistakes and attract more clients!) Get your copy today, plus Oma's client-attraction newsletter, Get Clients Cafe, at http://www.getcleargetknowngetclients.com

http://katrinamckenna.com/2010/09/27/why-you-need-a-niche/