Ask the Right Questions to Qualify Your Business Niche
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So you've decided on your business's niche. And
you're ready to go out and create products and services just for your
target market.
Wait! Don't move so fast. Are you sure this target market will be profitable? To be sure, do your due diligence and find out the answers to these four questions:
1. Is the target market big enough to sustain profitability?
If your target market is too small, there won't be enough buyers of your product or service. You can usually find this out by finding an organization, association or other group that your target market might belong to and find out (at least in ball park) how big the membership is.
2. Is your target market hungry?
If you've chosen an apathetic market that doesn't care enough about the problem or desire you've uncovered to do something about it, they aren't going to buy your product or service. This one is more subjective, however a good rule of thumb is to find out if there are currently products and services available to this market. If so, then you can be reasonably assured that the market is hungry.
3. Is your target market willing to pay enough for your product or service?
If it costs you $5 to produce your product, but your target market is only willing to pay $4 for it, you don't have a viable product. Since you found some products and services when answer question 2, how much are they charging? Do you see any pricing trends?
4. Do you have access to your target market?
Is there a place where members of your target market congregate? If not, it might be difficult to get your message to them. If you were able to find an organization, association or other group that your target market belongs to, will they let you contact their membership? Is there a publication that your target market reads that you could advertise in? Is there a list of members of your target market that you can rent or purchase?
If the answers to these questions turned up a big dud, be thankful that you didn't put a lot of work into a product or service for that market. It cost you a lot less to do this research before development, than it would if you had a product you couldn't move.
Wait! Don't move so fast. Are you sure this target market will be profitable? To be sure, do your due diligence and find out the answers to these four questions:
1. Is the target market big enough to sustain profitability?
If your target market is too small, there won't be enough buyers of your product or service. You can usually find this out by finding an organization, association or other group that your target market might belong to and find out (at least in ball park) how big the membership is.
2. Is your target market hungry?
If you've chosen an apathetic market that doesn't care enough about the problem or desire you've uncovered to do something about it, they aren't going to buy your product or service. This one is more subjective, however a good rule of thumb is to find out if there are currently products and services available to this market. If so, then you can be reasonably assured that the market is hungry.
3. Is your target market willing to pay enough for your product or service?
If it costs you $5 to produce your product, but your target market is only willing to pay $4 for it, you don't have a viable product. Since you found some products and services when answer question 2, how much are they charging? Do you see any pricing trends?
4. Do you have access to your target market?
Is there a place where members of your target market congregate? If not, it might be difficult to get your message to them. If you were able to find an organization, association or other group that your target market belongs to, will they let you contact their membership? Is there a publication that your target market reads that you could advertise in? Is there a list of members of your target market that you can rent or purchase?
If the answers to these questions turned up a big dud, be thankful that you didn't put a lot of work into a product or service for that market. It cost you a lot less to do this research before development, than it would if you had a product you couldn't move.
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Free PDF Download Creating Compelling Headlines For Your Home Page - 3 Tips - By Carma Spence-Pothitt |
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About the Author: Carma Spence-Pothitt Carma Spence-Pothitt is the president of the Women's Business Gallery, an information-rich resource for women entrepreneurs, small business owners, and solo professionals, as well as founder of WordPress ReVamp, which helps authors, speakers and coaches build and nurture a thriving web presence. If you would like to learn the five steps to turbo-charge your marketing, pick up your copy of the free report at www.marketingturbocharge.com. You can also visit The Women's Business Gallery to sign up for the monthly newsletter The ART of Business and receive the free eReport "StART Your Business". Click here to visit Carma's website.   Trolling For Topics On Autopilot Small Business StartUp Easy as ART Plan Your Blog for Success Create a Powerful Marketing Story in Three Steps Define Your Niche and Improve Your Bottom Line |
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