5 Reasons to Choose a Niche When Starting a New Business

Select a business niche when writing a new business planThe Wall Street Journal recently published an interesting article on Artificial Intelligence (AI), written by Christopher Mims (see article). The article describes two new businesses that are making great strides in how AI can be used to help make our lives easier.

What struck me as most interesting, however, was the incredibly narrow focus these businesses have with regards to what they hope to accomplish, and the value proposition they offer. As Mims points out, this is actually a very smart approach – one that is in complete alignment with my own perspective. If you seek to launch a new business (and write a new business plan as part of the process), then you too can benefit from this strategy.

In the WSJ article, one of the new businesses described is X.ai, which seeks to help simplify the task of making calendar appointments with others. We have all experienced this challenge. It can be annoying and time-consuming. The investment community agreed. The company was recently funded with $2.1 million to develop their virtual assistant called Amy (see announcement). Considering all the tasks an administrative assistant could do, it is notable that the company will just address the task of making appointments.

Here are 5 reasons why this is a good strategy:

  1. Once the development work has been completed and it is time to start generating awareness or “buzz” for the company, the message of simplifying the task of calendar appointment setting is crisp, easy to understand, and will resonate very well with nearly everyone that hears it. Another term for this strategy is KISS, or Keep It Simple, Stupid.
  2. The focus on just one task means that the “use cases” or examples of problems that can be solved will be equally focused. Employees will quickly become experts at the challenges tied to setting appointments when they can’t see each other’s calendars. Training time, effort and cost will be minimized, as will time spent on the phone doing customer support.
  3. Sales cycles should be accelerated, or at least simplified. This will likely also lead to streamlined support and future sales leads, helping the company to grow at this critical point of its life.
  4. Market awareness programs will be better understood to yield better results. Given the overload of information that potential customers hear every day, the chance to quickly address a common challenge will resonate well, resulting in greater retention and brand recognition.
  5. Future expansion decisions will be simplified, and cost less. For example, if the company sought to ease appointment setting, time card completion and file storage, then you will have new complexity when deciding the best direction for future growth. Where do you invest next? Time card tracking, appointment setting or file storage? Having initially invested in all three services, you will likely continue that strategy, and it will cost you more resources and investment. Alternatively, going with a very narrow focus to a specific audience offers a more cost-effective approach to expansion. Getting just appointment setting right, for example, could then be applied to several different types of user profiles, ranging from corporate business workers to small business owners to “soccer” moms. This type of expansion will be much easier and cost effective to execute, so will have a greater chance for success.

So why don’t more business startups pursue such a narrow focus and strategy, including how they write their business plan? Experience has taught me that when working for a small startup it is very difficult to say “no” to a new sales opportunity. The sales and/ or management team is afraid to see a possible sales opportunity walk out the door. When you are at a startup, things are tight, so every possible sales angle takes on greater attention. But those with the strength and discipline to do just one thing, and do it well, will be rewarded with less risk and, hopefully, a better chance of survival.

While Content May Be King, Conversation is Queen of Market Awareness

king_and_queen_marketing_awareness2Numerous articles have been written on the importance of what we marketers refer to as “content” in order to drive market awareness, lead generation and other sales support activities. Simply stated, you need something to say to gain the attention of your prospects and customers. Google, Bing and the other search engines reinforce this concept – you simply can’t achieve good search engine placements without quality, relevant content that is frequently updated on a regular basis.

As has been mentioned in this blog and other publications, a blog is a great place to showcase your content. Blogs offer a great “home” for you to build a collection of articles and stories that share a common theme, which in aggregate support your brand and help future customers to find your business. Any business plan writer you meet with should have a strong understanding of this topic too – if not, it might be time to find another writer!

Is Good Content Enough?

Here is where you have to ask yourself “what’s next?” Now that you have invested the time and resources to write a collection of articles, how do you now build relationships with your readers, current customers and potential clients? The reward for getting engaged in these conversations is substantial and includes:

  • Enhanced likelihood these people will read and follow future announcements
  • Improved response rates to future offers
  • Increased chance of that person will ultimately become a customer

Learning by Example

One area where marketers can learn how to drive increased conversations is from the world of e-commerce. Some of the online retailers are quite good at creating a series of interactions that create a group of engaged prospects that likely will become future customers. For example, we all know that if we order a product from a website, we will get an email soon thereafter confirming our order. This is a good thing – we like to have a record of what we just bought. Further, if we receive an email the next day indicating our product has shipped, this is also a nice message to receive – my order is on its way. Then, sometimes you even get an email indicating that the order has shipped, with complete tracking information. Follow up emails might even include customer satisfaction surveys, another great opportunity to suggest or induce conversation.

The conversation, however, doesn’t stop once the order has been shipped and received. Instead, it is highly likely we will get a follow-up email from these retailers in a few weeks or months from now, suggesting a similar product for us to order. For some of us, this is an annoyance, and we will opt out. But, for others, this is seen as a nice thing, as a way to make future orders easier to manage and accommodate.

Here is where public relations and social media professionals might take note. What can we learn from the retail establishment as a way to increase our conversation “quotient”? One challenge is we don’t have the same access to the contact information that e-tailers do, such as an email address. And, with privacy laws and concerns, it is unlikely this will change. One approach is to add a call to action or value proposition that can then facilitate better access to this data. A newsletter sign up, for example, might be an angle that promises notification of new stories of interest, or of when a new blog post goes live.

If you can accomplish the right mix of content and conversation, then you are worthy of “royal” lineage. You will then have addressed both the king and queen of marketing awareness, through a marketing-based approach to public relations and brand awareness!

Policy Change, or New Trend Opportunity?

trend_or_new_business_opportunityI recently had the opportunity to go to France on a business trip. Despite the increasingly “flat” world we live in, each country definitely has its particular nuances on how business is done and what social customs are acceptable. Fortunately, I was able to spend a bit of time in restaurants where I enjoyed the wonderful French cuisine.

One thing that caught my attention was when it came time to pay my bill. I was aware that when using a credit card, the tip had to be referenced early so as to be included with the authorization approval. What struck me as odd was that a tip amount could no longer be included with my credit card charge.

Shortsighted Policy Shift

This policy change surprised me, so I asked further what the thought was behind it. My server told me that it was causing too much taxes to be charged to the restaurant – apparently VAT or other taxes are applied to not only the food bought, but the services tipped. So, the solution was to simply stop including tips with credit card bills.

My next question was to my server – what did he think of this change? You might guess his response, “It is terrible.” I can only imagine. Personally, I carry little cash with me, relying heavily on plastic to cover my expenses, especially during a business trip. I didn’t have any Euros on me, so had to explain I would be back later to reconcile my shortcoming (which, by the way, I neglected to despite good intentions).

Industry Change, or Window of Opportunity?

My next thought was whether this change was government-mandated, or just the establishment’s decision. After doing a bit of research, it appears this was an isolated incidence (please let me know if I missed something). Given my server’s response, if the policy was country-wide, I suspect we would have all heard about it by now!

Given that this appeared to be an isolated change, what do you suppose will be the outcome? To start, I have a lower opinion of the restaurant – why do I want to support an organization that is clearly not thinking about their employees?

Further, I am inclined to believe the hired help will seek employment where tips can be added to the receipt. This might even create a cycle (and a reputation) that this business owner may, or may not truly understand. Those that can’t find “full payment” employment opportunities might ultimately become the staff at this establishment – effectively lower the bar on the quality of staffing. These folks might have to accept a lower payment in exchange for a lack of experience, poor work history, bad reputation, or some other challenge that precluded their working elsewhere.

As a competitor, this opportunity could be viewed as a window of opportunity to initially hire away the best employees, and in the future, to convince new recruits to not even consider their competitor for employment.

Alternatively, if this were a broader industry shift, such as a new government mandate, then the window of opportunity might be with a different perspective. For example, a new business plan that might now gain traction could be to provide mobile payment via a new app capable of digitally paying a bill while bypassing the restaurant’s own internal billing format. From a marketing communications perspective, the waiters could then become your own distributed sales force, offering this service to those without cash on hand.

Those with a keen sense of what was driving the change and what the perspective is of those impacted by the change will stand to benefit – if they can move quick enough to provide a new solution before everyone else.

So, next time you observe a shift in a routine, it might be worthwhile to pay particular attention to what is driving that change – a new business plan opportunity might be just around the corner!