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New Business Owners – What Makes a Niche Good?
By admin | December 4, 2007
As a new business owner one of the toughest questions you’ll need to answer for yourself is, have I found a good niche?
Defining what makes a niche good is the easy part.
A good niche is:
* one you are passionate about,
* know something about,
* have a sustaining interest in,
* can make a meaningful contribution to, and
* will make you good money.
Making sure you’ve found one is the hard part.
Why? Because it takes time to thoroughly research your niche to make sure it’s a good niche for you.
As a business coach for women starting businesses, I know how important it is for my clients to find a good niche. Yet, so many women skip over this vitally important part in their hurry to make money. Effectively shooting their new business start-up in the foot.
I know women want to get their business up and going as soon as possible. I know they’re often under pressure to do so from their husbands or partners. I know that many start up their business on a shoestring, meaning every month spent in start up is a month without income.
To avoid shooting your new business start-up in the foot, know the answers to these four things and you’ll be off on the right foot toward determining if you’ve found a good niche:
* Are you called to serve your niche?
First things first, do you feel a calling to do what you want to do? “I don’t feel people get called to do something that doesn’t have a purpose,” says Samantha Hartley of Enlightened Marketing.
* Is there low competition?
There are a number of ways to determine if there is much competition in your field. One way is to go to the Widow website. Type in your keyword phrases and click “search.” What you’ll see is a non-duplicating list of businesses related to your keyword phrase. Look around. Take notes. Who else is already doing what you want to do? If you find that there are a number of businesses competing, take heart. Look in the left-hand column to find related cluster searches that are more niche specific. Drill down into the clusters for niche markets with less competition.
Next, head over to GTrends at the Wordtracker website. Type your revised niche keyword list and click “hit me.” This tool will generate a list of key phrases that people search for and give you an estimate of the daily search volume from all of the search engines. Most important, click on the bar graph icon to the right and see the trends for your niche phrases.
* Will your business have strategic alliance strength?
Talk with people in peripheral businesses that would be most likely to refer business to you to determine strategic alliance strength. Samantha Hartley recommends going directly to them and asking, “I’m considering starting this business – what do you think? Would this be something that would add a substantive value to the customers or clients you currently service?” Listen closely to what they have to say.
* Will it pay the bills?
Lastly, do a cost analysis of what you want your business to be earning in one year, three, and five years from now. What will your operating costs be? What equipment do you need to purchase? What will be taken out in taxes?
Figure out how much service or product you will need to deliver in order to pay the bills.
How much will it cost to produce your product? How many hours will you need to work? How much will you be able to charge in your market?
Really run the numbers to make sure your business can bring in the amount of income you want, in the long run. If you do the numbers and see that you’ll come out the first year making only $25,000, that might be okay if, when you project out to three years, you see that you will make $250,000.
One of the toughest things for a new business owner to do is take the time to determine if you’ve found a good niche. A niche you are passionate about, know something about, and have a sustaining interest in. But that’s not enough. A good niche must also be able to make you good money. That’s why it’s so important that you don’t skip the niche research step. Do these four things and you’ll be off to a good start toward determining if you’ve found a good niche.
Watch the video related to women business owners
. www.homepartyplansuccesstips.com 503-454-0940 PATRICIA . african american women in business famous african american women in business Top African American Women in Business …Other than Oprah ยป The Jan 24, 2008 Here we briefly profile ten fantastically accomplished African American women in finance and business. If you don’t know their names yet, African-American women step up in business world Aug 24, 2006, As women take entrepreneurship’s lead, marketers from banks to tech companies are …
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About Author
Interested in learning more about how you can make sure you’ve found a good niche? One that you’re passionate about, will keep you interested, and can make good money for you? Then get instant access to your own free PDF copy of “Doing What You Love: Multiple Streams of Passion” at http://www.SuccessfulSmallBizOwners.com
Topics: Networking | 9 Comments »
December 4th, 2007 at 9:26 am
It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK – lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born.
Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.
Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same – hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.
Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html...
"The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments."
Here is a listing of federal grants for small businesses. See if there is any available for individuals for starting a business — THERE'S NONE.
http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.BROWSE_BENEF_RPT.show
Below is a list of grants available to WOMEN – none of them are for starting a business
10.443 USDA Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
10.550 USDA Food Donation
10.557 USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
10.565 USDA Commodity Supplemental Food Program
10.572 USDA WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)
16.736 DOJ Transitional Housing Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence, Stalking, or Sexual Assault
17.301 DOL Non-Discrimination and Affirmative Action by Federal Contractors and Federally Assisted Construction Contractors
17.700 DOL Women's Bureau
20.905 DOT Disadvantaged Business Enterprises_Short Term Lending Program
30.001 EEOC Employment Discrimination_Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
30.002 EEOC Employment Discrimination_State and Local Fair Employment Practices Agency Contracts
59.043 SBA Women's Business Ownership Assistance
59.046 SBA Microloan Program
64.011 VA Veterans Dental Care
84.334 ED Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs
93.110 HHS Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs
93.235 HHS Abstinence Education Program
93.290 HHS National Community Centers of Excellence in Women's Health
93.591 HHS Family Violence Prevention and Services/Grants For Battered Women's Shelters_Grants to State Domestic Violence Coalitions
93.919 HHS Cooperative Agreements for State-Based Comprehensive Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Programs
93.926 HHS Healthy Start Initiative
93.994 HHS Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to the States
93.995 HHS Adolescent Family Life_Demonstration Projects
96.001 SSA Social Security_Disability Insurance
96.002 SSA Social Security_Retirement Insurance
96.004 SSA Social Security_Survivors Insurance
Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program
Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs
For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center's Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It's a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for "students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices." Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don't have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.
http://www.cfda.gov
http://www.grants.gov
http://gtionline.fdncenter.org
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol66/grants.htm
http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html
December 4th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Try a local chapter of NAWBO, my mom's a member and they are awesome people. It is a truly wonderful networking community where women biz owners support each other.
Try this: http://www.nawbo.org/
December 5th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK – lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born.
Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.
Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same – hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.
Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html...
"The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments."
Here is a listing of federal grants for small businesses. See if there is any available for individuals for starting a business — THERE'S NONE.
http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.BROWSE_BENEF_RPT.show
Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program
Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs
For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center's Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It's a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for "students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices." Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don't have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:25 am
very little if any grantsfor starting a new business, no matter who you are
December 6th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
The federal government (through the SBA) has specialty loan programs that aim to help women open or grow businesses. But the best options for you are probably at the state level, where loans of as much as $50,000 are often available to female-owned companies. (Be careful with the word "grant," by the way, because this money rarely comes without a requirement for collateral or a need to pay it back. So it's a loan, not a gift.) There's a pretty good list of programs at http://www.business.gov/start/woman-owned/ that could provide a place to start.
Beyond that, I'm a big fan of the National Association of Women's Business Owners, which has a ton of information on its site: http://nawbo.org/. I'd also recommend finding the NAWBO chapter near you so that you can begin the networking process that many entrepreneurs find so helpful.
Lastly, regardless of gender, Inc. Magazine has compiled a good resource for general capital-raising ideas here: http://www.inc.com/guides/finance/20797.html
Good luck with your start-up.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Check out the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership (OWBO) which deals with women business owners http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/index.html
There are special loan packages for women owned businesses, free training, certification programs that would allow you to compete better in government procurement process
Contact the SBA's women representatives in your state
http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_program_office/wbc_women's_bus_reps.pdf
December 7th, 2007 at 1:21 am
take your business plan to the small business administration!!!
December 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
You need to speak with the local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC). If you can't find them, contact the Small Business Development Center, and they can tell you how. PTAC helps small companies find government contracts.
December 7th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
None different than men. It's a business entity and doesn't know gender. Women owners may handle certain aspects slightly differently but the overall business concerns and goals remain the same: Maximize profit and margins, minimize expenses.