image via flickr by aussiegall

Despite all the talk about having a niche, many businesses still operate without one. Your must have something that sets you apart from anyone else either in product, distribution or promotion at all times. Doing this type of regular activity, protects your business from competing on price.

Now do not over think this. It does not have to be a new invention. It can simply be a new feature added to one of your current offerings. This is strategy to the core!

So below are three methods of uncovering your niche:

1. Call your top 6 clients.

They know what they want and need. Take detailed notes during the conversations and follow up on a least one idea that comes out in the conversation within a month. Keep the client involved in the progress too!

2. Do a ‘documented’ competitive analysis.

In a 3 column table, the headings should read ‘Unique Differences’ /’Risk Low -1 High -5′/ ‘Action’. List your competitors unique differences, the level of risk to your business and the actions you will take to combat them. Do a separate table for each client and review for possible feature combinations and brainstorm.

3. Compare against leaders in other industries.

If you are an IT company compare your product offering to a business in the restaurant industry or any category killer for that matter. It sounds odd, but list out all of your product or services for both you and them next to each other. You will be surprised how quickly a new offering idea can come to you and how creatively satisfying this can be.

Do this every quarter or half year and also pop it in your business plan.

If this is the first time you have done this, it will be a much needed reality check. I get to do this for clients all the time and it is quite scary how long they operate without a niche and wonder why is always comes down to price.

It is also advisable to have somebody outside of your business do this on your behalf and provide a report back to you. Business ‘owners’ and ‘founders’ in particular make ill judgements about the products or services and they never know that they are doing it

A recent trip to my beloved KikkiK last weekend appealed to a sentiment not often felt when hauling my 3 youngsters through a shopping centre – Peace. Normally running errands for this mother of 3 is nothing short of a nightmare.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, the 2007 birth rate was the largest recorded in history (ABS 2009). That was 19,400 more babies than the previous year. There is a mountain of mothers pushing around record numbers of three years.

Research has shown that women are the primary decision makers for consumer goods in 85% of households, and women make 75% of decisions about buying new homes, and 81% of the decisions about groceries.

I am not referring to ‘Parental Yielding’ (Berey & Pollay 1970) which is a term given when parents give into the child’s repeated and persistent requests. What I am saying is that even if the child’s nagging is not a direct influence in the purchase decision, making a visit to your business effortless for her will resonate long after she leaves the store.

However aside from the obvious products that families with small children need to purchase such as nappies or suitable cereal, many other businesses could benefit from catering for this portion of the population. What I am really trying to say is ‘ease of use’ for families. The moment we come through the door at Kikki.K, the shop assistant addressed my kids as if Brad & Angelina had just walked in the door.   I was completely at ease while browsing and I bought a number of items because I had the time to flick through everything and fall in love.  You can see my daughter in the picture above. She is a Kikki.K girl too!
Just look at iconic global brands MacDonald’s or Ikea. I would pay for Ikea’s momentary childcare – but it just so happens to be free. Businesses should incorporate such elements into their marketing plan now.

I would love to hear other brands that cater well for young families or how others can innovate in the comments section below.

This is a short and snappy post about setting goals for your business. My wonderful personal trainer Esther from Passion8 PTput me onto the RunKeeper App for the iPhone. It tracks the exact distance by GPS,  how far and how long you run. Now if you know me well, you know I HATE running. I will  power walk for kilometers, follow a black line in a pool for as long and ride my bike with joy – but running – YUCK!

That would be fine except if my goal for 2010 is to finally compete in a Triathlon. It has been a long time dream because I love combining swimming and riding. So my goal is to learn to love to run. I have tried many times before and have failed.

So I started using this App and things have changed. Suddenly I am single minded about achieving my goal.Comparing previous runs and setting small weekly targets. I also get the sweet satisfaction of hitting these smaller goals with the end game in sight.

When on a run this week, my words from a recent post I did about Strategy for Social Media  came back to me. Closely tracking myself against a long term goal means I am far less likely to give up and every move I make is deliberate.

Talk about motivation – I can’t wait to get back out there and beat myself. Previously I was running, but I didn’t really know where. I would easily tell myself that is far enough now.

Fluffy undefined goals are unachievable by their very nature. There is also a multitude of activities in your business you can waste time on and not  achieve success. Ultimately strategy means clarifying what you want and setting goals on how you are going to achieve it.