How do people discover their true talents? Does a professional organizer just wake up one day and say, “I want to organize?” Once they became organizers, how did they decide they were going to focus on, for example, de-cluttering the homes of clients who were planning to move? Supporting nonprofit organizations in developing more effective time management strategies?
How do we identify and harness our truest talents to fully realize our potential—and build a high revenue business?
The easy answer is in a single word you’ve probably heard hundreds of times before. While “niche” began in English as “a physical opening intended to house something,” over time, its additional more metaphorical meanings took shape, including “a specialized area of business” or market niche.
Simply put, your niche is where you belong. It’s a position in an industry, market, interest group, etc. that is particularly well-suited to you, your talents and your business offerings. Your ideal niche is one where you are selling a specific, useful “something” to a particular group of people: you become the recognized provider of that product or service and focus all your marketing efforts on the most targeted (and potentially most profitable) audience available.
So how do we find our optimal business niche? In the case of many of those organizers, chances are their “calling” came naturally-or out of necessity. Consider the case of Elizabeth Hagen:
“In 1985 my husband and I had four children under the age of five. We had toys with small pieces, clothes for each child, multi-piece Barbie outfits, health records times four, not to mention the everyday mail, activities, and menus. This was as close to chaos as I wanted to be. I learned versatile organizing skills and reclaimed control. As family and friends saw the extraordinary change, they asked me to do the same for them ...”
Elizabeth took a real-life situation and recognized the need for a solution. Through her action, she discovered her skill and enjoyment for organizing. Once she identified her core demographic, or niche market, she geared her marketing for them and established herself as an expert, thereby increasing awareness and demand for her services from a wider range of clients.
While finding your niche can require a great deal of research—both soul-searching and locating info on what markets are on the rise—you can get started by asking yourself a few simple questions:
What are your talents and skills?
Does your family always come to you when they have a tricky computer question? Have you heard the phrase “You should start a business!” countless times when you showcased something you’ve created or fixed someone’s problem? While you shouldn’t necessarily avoid a venture because you have little experience in that industry, keep in mind that it requires a great deal more hard work to learn a business before you start building it. You’ve got talents available to capitalize on right now.
What do you enjoy?
When asking yourself this question, the best place to start is with your hobbies. Building a business requires a lot of time, money and effort; when you truly enjoy what you do it becomes a great source of energy and inspiration, particularly during the (often difficult) process of laying down a foundation. It’s so important that what you sell and market interests you; trying to motivate yourself to sell something you have no interest in is exponentially harder than being involved in what you love.
What is there a need for?
Once you have identified your talents and interests, consider what’s needed in a particular industry. If you constantly come across the same problem when attempting to enjoy your hobbies, chances are others have encountered it as well. Are you always looking for certain supplies that seem difficult to find? Is their a particular task that is universally disliked and could potentially be outsourced? Mark Twain once wrote, “The secret of success is to find out where people are going and get there first.” Eventually someone is going to come up with a solution: why can’t it be you?
