The simplest and most specific method for choosing a niche for a business. How to identify it and increase sales conversion Profitable niches for business

Evgeniy Shleenkov, founder and general director of the Shmel Center for Entrepreneurship Development, co-founder of the construction company Eurodom, owner of the coffee company DiMaestri, shared life hacks that will help you come up with an idea for a business and test its strength.

Where does a business start?

Let’s not idealize and talk about ideas that suddenly came in a dream: and now you woke up like this and ran to implement what you saw. It happens. But these are rather exceptions to the rule. Business starts with your personal choice. You decide to open your own business and clearly understand what you want to get in the end. Then it’s a matter of technology and knowledge. But the very first step is that very choice. What exactly do I want to do?

If we take the field of online sales, then the very first question you should ask yourself is what do I want to sell? The niche of your future business is your foundation, the basis for all subsequent actions. And if you lay a weak and shabby foundation, you will most likely be disappointed and suffer losses after a while.

I have seen many examples of successful niche selection, for example, the Taxovichkof company, which began offering nanny drivers with child seats in each car, or Airbnb, which created a site for safe rental housing, and vice versa, when people were in a hurry, they rushed into the pool, invested millions and ended up with nothing. Thus, McDonalds tried several times to launch a line of healthy food and even created a service for VIPs, however, they failed miserably: customers love the restaurant precisely because it is democratic and accessible.

A sober analysis of what you want to do in the future is the first thing that should worry you, not a beautiful website or booklets. So, before you start realizing yourself in a new niche, evaluate how well your choice meets the following criteria:

1. You must solve people's problems with your product.

What do people pay money for? For pleasure and the opportunity to solve their pain. If you have trouble seeing, you look for glasses. If you're hot, you look for a water or ice cream stall. And so on.

Look around and think about what problems you have that are still not so easy to deal with.

There was an interesting story in my practice: Once I was stuck in a traffic jam in the summer, it was +30 degrees outside, the heat was terrible. Young guys knock on my window and offer me magazines. What can I say, at that moment I would have given anything for a bottle of water and a Snickers, my body was so exhausted. And I looked around and saw the same unhappy faces in the neighboring cars.

What we did: They hired guys who, in the daily traffic jam, offered drivers not magazines of dubious content, but water and snacks. The cost is minimal, we recovered the costs in the first few days of work.

What makes this event successful? The fact is that we didn’t try to sell people what we thought they needed. We offered what they need most now. And this example can be transferred to any niche. Look around, think about what worries people today, what they would like to change and improve.

Among the famous new products of last year, we can highlight an application that broke the figure of 10 million downloads in the first week alone. And why all? People are tired of standard photo processing filters in . They were given an application that allowed them to edit their photos in the style of a famous artist. As simple as possible and to the point. The creators felt the pain and created a product for it. This is the secret of any startup.

2. Your product must provide value.

Don't try to make light of the significance and importance of what you do. Assess the situation realistically.

Is your buyer willing to pay an amount for what you are offering him? If I’m offered water in a traffic jam, I’m ready to buy it for a reasonable 50–100 rubles, but if I’m offered the same product for 500 rubles, I’ll endure it until the next gas station.

The same thing with branded clothing - if you are trying to sell branded items in a small city, but at the prices of a Moscow department store - do not be surprised that your customers will refuse such an expensive purchase and go to the same aliexpress, where they can buy a copy ten times cheaper. The quality will be lower, yes, but for this audience the price is the deciding factor.

Be sure to analyze whether your customer is willing to pay for your product, no matter how good it is.

Here I can’t help but give an example at the beginning of the journey:

Attempts to create a computer for the whole family that cost several thousand dollars failed miserably and cost Jobs his job. Only years later the entrepreneur was able to return to the company and still complete his project, significantly reducing the cost of the final product.

If you want to create a consumer product, analyze how much your customer is willing to pay for it. Precisely ready, but not supposed to. Don't build sandcastles about people flying your product off store shelves. In an age of very fierce competition, your chance is one in a million.

3. Fast transaction cycle: make profit immediately

Now we are talking about small businesses and opportunities for beginners and not only entrepreneurs to start their own business here and now. Therefore, the strategy should be as short-term as possible.

If you see that your product is selling quickly, you can lower your markup to increase conversion. If you require promotion and, accordingly, financial and time costs, the price must increase. However, do not try to make money, act honestly and openly.

For example, a successful startup once did not spend money on a vehicle fleet and hiring employees. Basically, the company consisted of several people. They created an application where everyone could make money from taxi services. You register, take an order, get paid. Everything is as simple and fast as possible. Today, Uber is a global giant and the most successful taxi company in recent years. And all thanks to the successful combination - low price and convenient service.

The consumer always reacts very sharply to two things: an artificially high price (“they want to make money on me”) and too low a cost (“poor quality product”).

4. Sell emotions, not products.

Remember that people want bread and circuses. Don't try to present your product too rationally, especially if it concerns the entertainment sector. For example, Party-bus, popular in the last few years.

People were offered a replacement for big clubs, the opportunity to relax with friends in close company, but with all the club surroundings, and even take a ride around the city. In total, a comprehensive interactive for any occasion: wedding, birthday, bachelorette party. And when we think about these buses, the most vivid images arise in our heads: celebration, fun, smiles and other pleasant things.

Let's summarize. How to choose your business niche:

1. Think creatively and start with yourself: what excites you, what would you like to improve in the world around you?
2. Next, look around, are there many people around who are facing the same problem?
3. Are they willing to pay?

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How to make the right choice of niche from scratch? This is a pressing question for all beginning businessmen. Choosing a niche is very important, because it determines how your business will develop, whether it will be profitable and promising. So, let's begin.

From this article you will learn:

1. Why is it so important to choose the right business niche?
2. 12 approaches and 10 main stages of choosing a niche from scratch
3. What parameters should you choose?
4. The easiest way to decide on a niche
5. What to do if you are completely confused with the choice
6. 3 common mistakes when choosing a niche for business

Why is the right choice of business niche so important?

Choosing the right niche is one of the main components of success. Even if the supply is perfect, it can dissipate in light of low demand if the direction is chosen incorrectly.

The university curriculum and teaching materials in economics say: “Produce a product previously unknown to the market, and you will be rich.” But in the modern Russian economy, you will only be successful if you find a niche with high demand. It is this that is the distinctive feature of a correctly chosen niche, and not uniqueness, attractiveness, or ethical standards.

The niche should be as narrow as possible. For example, a translator with extensive experience opens a translation agency. He will have many competitors. To occupy his niche, he must choose a narrower direction (engage in technical translations).

You need to be aware that not only the attractiveness of a niche is important, but also the high demand in it. After a long search, the businessman found a unique, interesting offer to consumers in the field in which he is a professional. And demand is low. Therefore, the procedure should be like this:

1. Choosing an interesting niche.
2. Studying the demand in it
3. Making the final decision and offering goods/services.

3 reasons why choosing a niche is not an easy decision

Difficulties in choosing a niche are due to the following reasons:

1. Doubt.

Doubting means not believing in your ability to cope with the topic. Doubt is normal. You need to be wary of statements like, “This topic is a sure thing.” When launching a new project, it is unknown what awaits the entrepreneur in a few months.

Doubt can be paralyzing. You will be looking at many niche options, hoping to find the perfect one. But, alas, there are none.

Oddly enough, in order to get rid of doubt, you have to make mistakes. Research and testing will help you. Research does not guarantee your success. The test will allow you to see the real situation.

1. Inaction.

If a person is inactive, he becomes a theorist. He has a lot of knowledge and skills, but the result is zero.

There is no effective way to combat inaction. If you don’t want to change anything, then you’ll just lie on the couch. In order to start working, you need a good incentive.

1. Theft.

Stealing is the same as sitting on a mine. Some people think that copying someone else's website is a good solution for their business. But every company is unique. Even if you opened the same beauty salon as nearby, you will have different clients, as well as profits.

Every entrepreneur is individual.

Not everyone can correctly interpret Picasso’s statement: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

You can take someone else’s business as an example, but pass their idea through your own worldview. Blind copying will not produce results. Running a business is harder than pressing CTRL+C.

12 approaches to choosing a niche from scratch

Approach #1. Logics

A logical approach to choosing a niche involves the need to evaluate it in terms of logic and numbers. Only calculations will allow you to find out whether the profitability of the business will be high, what the profit will be, and whether it will be possible to scale the enterprise.

Approach #2. Experience

With the help of a business, you can turn your accumulated experience into a product that is in demand on the market and receive income from its sales. Experience cannot be ignored.

Approach #3. Hobby

If you spend all your free time doing what you love, then it is better to build a business on your hobby. There is no need to be ashamed that you are making a profit from an activity that you enjoy doing. You should get a kick out of such a niche.

Approach #4. People

When choosing a niche, focus on the people around you. Look through the contacts on your phone, think about your friends and family in a different way: maybe one of them is an ideal option to become your partner or supplier. The starting point of your entrepreneurial activity can be a person.

Approach #5. Family

Why is a family business a great option? What obstacles may you encounter on the way to realizing your own potential in a family business, and how to overcome them?

If one of your family members is a businessman, then a great option is to become their partner. There is a high probability that the development of a family business will be the work of your whole life. Many companies that have achieved success are family-owned (IKEA, Toyota, Ferrero or Auchan).

Approach #6. Barrier to entry

For any business there will be barriers to entry. In the same niche, the barrier for different businesses may be different. Your task is to find a niche for which the barrier to entry will be insignificant for you.

Approach #7. The market's plea

When choosing a niche, you may not notice that it is right under your nose. Friends and acquaintances ask you to do something, sell, order, deliver... Listen to their requests and make the right choice of niche. Perhaps, by starting to sell your products or services, you will satisfy the needs of others?

Approach #8. Innovation

An innovative idea is not necessarily the design of a perpetual motion machine or a new source of energy. The profitability of a niche based on innovation will be high if the author of the idea learns how to make money. As a rule, scientists and creators of innovative technologies do not know how to do this.

Submit your application

Approach #9. Model

There is no need to develop a new product from scratch. If there is already a product in demand on the market that you would use with pleasure, then choose it, refine it, make it more advanced, etc. If consumers are interested in your product/service, then rest assured that you have made the right choice of niche.

Approach 10. Future

Would you start a business selling video cassettes? And why?

When choosing a niche, you need to understand what will be in demand among consumers both in the short and long term. What products and services will not lose relevance in a few years?

Approach #11. Benefit, pain

Look at those around you. Everyone knows what pain is. If you manage to relieve people of it, eliminate the cause of their irritation, and satisfy their needs, then you will be able to gain a foothold in the market and form a customer base.

Approach #12. Just

What if you have no reason to open a business in any of the niches? If you don't have an explanation, why is it worth going into brick making, construction, catering or upholstered furniture?

Choosing a niche from scratch: 10 main steps

Stage 1. Selecting an available niche in the market

You must be able to carve out a niche. There is no need to reinvent the wheel at this time. Generating market demand is not an easy task. If you want to introduce your product to the market, first test how competitive it is.

Stage 2. Determining your target audience

First of all, you need to decide on the market, identify the target audience segment, and then select a product or develop a new one. Your job is to become one with your consumers so you don't have to guess what they want. It is impossible to make a product sales forecast without preliminary testing.

Stage 3. Analysis of potential clients

Large fish in the pond have a more advantageous position than small ones in the sea. Do a comparative analysis of you and the clients in the focus group. The objects of analysis can be: experience, habits, hobbies, interests, most frequently purchased goods and services.

Stage 4. Competitor analysis

It is necessary at the very beginning of your activity. In Yandex, enter keywords for the selected product into the search bar. After analyzing the search results, make a list of the 10 largest competitors. Evaluate their websites, their sales methods, order forms, and delivery service. You can pre-order, etc.

Stage 5. Increasing the competitiveness of the product and choosing a niche for business

Go to the page www.wordstat.yandex.ru on the “budget forecast” tab, enter keywords and analyze the search engine’s statistics on the number of impressions per month. You will be able to understand whether sales will go well or not. The “budget forecast” tab allows you to see the cost of one click after entering keywords. This helps you decide on your advertising budget.

Stage 6. Development of a slogan and concept for your brand

It is necessary to fit the description of the main advantage of the product into one short phrase. For example, Apple’s concept is “Think globally”, MTS’s concept is “You know you can”. In the vastness of the Runet, you can familiarize yourself with various slogans and develop your own.

Stage 7. Determining the niche pricing policy

If the client is solvent, then the likelihood of complaints from him is minimal. He almost never asks questions and rarely returns goods.

Stage 8. Using the product resale model

This is a classic. This model is the choice of most novice entrepreneurs, especially owners of online stores. You purchase goods in bulk and sell them at a premium. This method is simple, but you won’t earn much from it. The first profit ends up in the hands of a businessman just a few weeks after the start. But due to strong competition, there is a rapid decline in demand.

The exception is cases when an agreement for the sale of products is concluded with its manufacturer. This is an official distributor. The resale model is good if you deal with secondary goods, that is, those that began to be produced after the main one: they do not need promotion. For example, these could be iPad cases.

Stage 9. Testing

The most important stage. It helps determine whether a product is competitive and whether there is high demand for it. In addition, conducting it will allow you to understand which products should be left in the assortment basket, and which ones to get rid of.

Ask your potential client a question: “How do you feel about buying such and such a product?” The person will respond positively about it, and you will make an offer: “I have it, and I can sell it to you.” Most likely, the person will refuse in a polite manner. But by offering to make a purchase immediately, you can definitely understand how viable the product is.

Before the Internet, testing was done by placing advertisements in magazines. Consumers were encouraged to call if they wanted to buy a specific product. Analyzing the number of calls and the reaction of potential customers, we decided whether to continue producing/purchasing the product or abandon it.

The Internet has made testing much easier. Now you can use tools such as Yandex Direct, Google Adwords. And the possibilities for selling through social networks are almost endless.

It will help you:

• Studying the activities of competitors.
• Keyword testing using wordstat.
• Creation of an attractive sales offer, development of a concept, slogan for products and companies.
• Creating a website with a small number of pages and placing short advertisements on social networks, as well as contextual advertising.
• Liquidation of goods whose sales are not going well; analysis of products with the greatest attractiveness and investments in the most expensive of them, as well as in marketing activities, their scaling.

Step 10: Using the 100% Money Back Guarantee

This tool is very effective. Guarantee your customers 100% money back. Come up with attention-grabbing slogans, for example: “We will deliver your order in half an hour, otherwise lunch will be at our expense,” etc.

What parameters should you use to select a niche from scratch?

Below are the parameters that allow you to comb out a niche and choose the best option:

1. Margin– the difference between the purchase price and the selling price. If the products are inexpensive, then the margin should be at least 200-300%, not 30%. And if the product is expensive, then a margin of 10% would be good.
2. Seasonality– dependence of sales volumes on the time of year or any events. If you are new to business, there is no need to opt for seasonal products.
3. Product dimensions. They determine the storage location of products and the delivery method. For beginners, it is better to choose niches whose dimensions will not create difficulties.
4. Delivery period. If the product is popular, then ideally it should be delivered within 24 hours. If your choice fell on rare products, then the delivery time will not matter much.
5. Purchase price. Knowing it, you can calculate the amount of the initial investment. Agree that purchasing 10 TVs will cost much more than purchasing a batch of 100 smartphone cases. But the profit may be the same.

There are other options as well. But these are the main assistants in choosing a promising niche from scratch. Make a table in which you evaluate all the parameters for each niche. Options with the most advantages can be sent for testing.

The easiest choice of business niche

All numerous types of business activities are divided into 3 main groups:

• Production.
• Trade.
• Provision of services.

Any enterprise can be classified into one of these categories. Work in two or three directions is also not excluded. For example, a company that produces printed forms may have its own network of retail outlets to sell them and provide services for filling out reports. This kind of business organization is the most profitable, since intermediaries are excluded from the chain.

1. Production.

The riskiness of business in this area is due to its relative slowness. To repurpose a company, you need a lot of money, and training takes a lot of time.

The scale of the enterprise is very important: the larger the production capacity, the lower the cost of production. But as production volumes increase, so does sluggishness. In this regard, many niches are emerging for organizing a business from scratch in production.

1. Trade.

The consumer must receive his product, so the “acquired-sold” chain attracts novice businessmen because it seems simple to them. Currently, the density of selling organizations is so high that it is necessary to search for either a new product or new markets for an existing one.

A hint will guide your search: first, during the year, the Moscow market becomes saturated, after which a new product appears on the shelves of the province. And the Moscow market is a year behind the European and American ones.

1. Services.

This area is a haven for creative people. When a person is full, he thinks about comfort. Any business should see its goal as meeting customer needs. This feature is most pronounced in the service sector. In our country, there are many empty niches in this category of entrepreneurship.

The reason for this is the lifting of the ban on private enterprise after the collapse of the USSR. Imported goods poured into the Russian market, but it was not completely filled with quality services.

Review of promising areas of activity in 2017

In recent years, there have been changes in the list of popular business areas with high profitability. Let's look at the best of them:

Mobile applications

Smartphones have long been no longer considered a luxury, but only a necessity. Almost every company develops its own mobile application to facilitate consumer access to its products or services.

In the modern world, people use various applications every day to access mobile banking and taxi services.

It is quite clear that there are plenty of business niches related to the development of mobile applications. Moreover, this business is profitable.

Adaptation of websites for smartphones

Statistics say that more than 70% of people use mobile Internet. That is, we can assume that the demand for mobile versions of websites will only grow in the near future. If you open a business in this area, the issue of choosing a niche for business from scratch will no longer worry you.

Lead generation

Data from sociological surveys indicate that more than 50% of visitors to many Internet resources come to them from social networks. That is, they are an important link in lead generation.

There are many freelancers currently working in this niche, but starting a business in it is not only feasible, but also desirable. Pay attention to this niche.

Handmade

There is now a great demand for environmentally friendly and handmade products. Everyone wants something that is one of a kind or custom made, even though the cost of such items is usually very high.

If you are a creative person, then feel free to occupy this niche. You will not have competitors in the form of large enterprises. In addition, handmade is a niche with high margins. What can you start producing?

Here are the main areas of business:

• Cloth. If you have sewing skills, then you can open a studio and sew custom-made clothes. Its demand is high among those who follow fashion and those whose figure is non-standard.
• Accessories. These can be exclusive leather belts, bags, wallets, purses. These things will be unique and expensive.
• Bijouterie. If you know how to work with polymer clay and are good with sculpture, then making jewelry is a good option for you.
• Christmas decorations. Before the New Year, the demand for designer decorations for Christmas trees increases. They are very original and have a special energy.
• Dolls. Handmade dolls are particularly beautiful and are of interest primarily to collectors. Expensive materials are used to make them. Tilda dolls intended for play are easier to make.
• Interior items. Most people like to complement the interior of their home with unique and exclusive items. Such people become clients of handicraft production of interior items.

This is not a complete list. The demand for any handmade product will always be high.

Medical services

The most popular areas of this niche are manual therapy and massage. It is not uncommon for patients disillusioned with traditional medicine to turn to chiropractors or massage therapists.

There is no need for large investments in such a business, and it is quite profitable.

In addition, private clinics or reception rooms for specialists are quite popular. To open a business in this niche, you will need significant investments: you will need to hire highly qualified specialists and purchase the necessary equipment. However, this area is highly profitable, so the investment will pay off quickly.

Trade in products

People want to eat even in a crisis. Therefore, the profitability of niches related to food products is obvious. If you start trading inexpensive, high-quality products (for example, meat or confectionery), you will not know the shortage of customers.

Delivery

If you have a car, it makes sense to organize a business for the delivery of any goods. These can be products from the supermarket or ready-made meals from any cafe or restaurant. If you organize a business in this niche correctly, you can earn a good income.

Education

If you have enough knowledge and experience in a certain field, you can organize training courses. Become a tutor for school and university students in any subject, open foreign language courses. A good option for psychologists and managers is to conduct training sessions.

You can write and publish books, organize seminars, and advise the population on various issues.

Repair

Smart owners are in no hurry to throw away broken things and buy new ones. After all, you can repair them and use them for several more years.

If you have experience in repairing household appliances or electronics, and you have enough knowledge for this, then choose this niche. Maybe you are an expert in reinstalling operating systems and installing various software? Organize a business in this niche area.

Lack of ability to repair something is not a reason to refuse to start a business. You can rent premises and hire qualified personnel.

This niche also includes room renovation services. Renting an office when organizing a business in this direction is not necessary. The main thing is to assemble a team of workers.

If you are completely confused about choosing a niche

3 common mistakes in choosing a business niche from scratch

Many aspiring businessmen are distinguished by their willingness to devote all their time and effort to business. In this case, possible risks are ignored. Let's look at what mistakes are most likely to happen when choosing a niche:

1. Don't rashly grab onto what you like or seems promising. A feature of the Russian economy is that there is no guarantee that your product will be in demand if you operate at random. The business will be successful if you choose the right niche. It requires consistency and precise knowledge of the needs of your target audience. You need to think through your sales funnel and marketing strategy taking into account digital indicators.
2. The second common mistake is choosing a niche from scratch based only on your own understanding of the market. What seems profitable, relevant and promising to you is not always so. Be based on the results of analysis and statistical data.
3. Even at the first stage, the entrepreneur’s mistake is to develop the “packaging” of the business to the detriment of the strategy for its formation and development. Often, beginning businessmen develop beautiful websites and landing pages, resorting to the services of the best designers, programmers and copywriters, although they do not have a strategy for building a profitable business.

Opening a business and expanding into new niches is never easy. In recent years, the desire to start a business among Russians has been increasingly waning. At the end of 2015, for example, only 2.2% of Russians seriously planned to start their own business. And in 2014, when the crisis had just begun, and existing businessmen began to actively sell off their businesses. According to Opora Rossii, 483.6 thousand companies have closed and only 417.5 thousand have opened.

And yet, a businessman is a diagnosis; accordingly, there will always be people who are truly “sick” with the matter. In 2016, interest in starting my own business resurfaced. The reason for this may be that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find decent pay in hiring.

Of course, opening a business from scratch or entering a new niche from an existing profile is a risky business that does not promise quick enrichment. Moreover, the number of niches for small and medium-sized businesses has recently been increasingly decreasing.

In December, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Elena Dybova diagnosed Russian small businesses - almost all business niches were occupied by corporations. In her opinion, the niches of services and trade are occupied; production requires money and resources that have become less available since the beginning of the 2014 crisis.

Boris Titov, the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights, says that it is still difficult for small businesses to get orders for government procurement, since, despite the fact, industry giants are trying to circumvent these norms. When everything starts working, small businesses should get a big piece of the social pie.

New business, old business – are there any unoccupied niches?

True, every cloud has a silver lining. A crisis is an opportunity to squeeze into the market with a solution to the problems that this crisis gives rise to. According to the authors of the portal for selling ready-made businesses “BiBoss”, new niches lie in the following areas:

1. Goods and services, allowing you to save. Discounters, second-hand stores, sites for selling and exchanging things, public catering places with inexpensive food, as well as anti-crisis services, such as financial advice, are becoming more popular.

Example. A company of young people, smart university graduates who were engaged in tutoring schoolchildren, united into a small company. The unique offer consisted, in essence, of the same tutoring - they prepared children for the Unified State Exam. But there was one difference - tutoring takes place not one on one with the student, but with a group of children. This suited the clients (parents), since the group size is still smaller than the class, and there are not 30 students per teacher, but 7-10. And the price turned out to be lower than individual training. The result of such group coaching is higher - the influence of the group has a positive effect.

2. Businesses based on innovation and technology. This is an area in which there is almost no crisis. This niche is difficult to enter, but it is insensitive to market fluctuations.

Example. Let's take a company that specializes in the development and production of innovative vacuum switching equipment, intelligent devices for automating networks and substations, etc. 25 years ago she created equipment with a unique operating principle. Despite the presence of competitors, it is their devices that are purchased throughout Russia. And the company itself is represented not only in Russia, but also has 22 representative offices abroad.

3. Consulting and training. As a business education, it does not require large investments. What you need is a lot of knowledge and experience. The demand for consulting is growing, as mistakes become more and more expensive, and competent people are needed who can protect against them. Another thing is that there are not so many truly literate people. So the stars are not left without work.

Example. The Moscow hotel market is very saturated, but the hotel industry, according to professionals, has not worked out. The reason is that it is not always clear to hoteliers that the competitive battle is won not by good, but by hospitable establishments. Company N is engaged in auditing, consulting and training in the hotel business. They chose to solve service problems in this area and do not rush into other industries. Previously, the owner of company N herself worked as a hotel manager, so she understands the pains of the industry.

4. Import substitution- Let us immediately make a reservation that despite the loud statements, the results of import substitution are still very modest. Official statistics do not say how many foreign components are in products produced at home and on what equipment they are made. The situation is better in agriculture. With all the reservations, now is the best time for the development of agricultural projects. Although it is too late to enter this business from scratch. But operating agribusinesses have every chance to re-profile and take those positions that were vacated by the departure of foreign products.

Example. For many years, the Mari company, with varying success, developed two areas: goat breeding and the production of goat milk products. The breakthrough occurred for several reasons, the company’s co-owner reflects: the business received government subsidies, food niches were freed up, and a competent management step was made - hiring an experienced marketer who developed new packaging and positioning, which allowed Mari products to compete in the largest retail chains with foreign goods.

5. Maintenance of Internet projects. The popularity of this area is due to the fact that retail trade has recently moved online. Quite complex online store sites require competent support. Therefore, now all those who are somehow involved in this activity are in demand: web studios, designers, advertising specialists and copywriters.

Example. Bots that respond to customer requests in Telegram and collect reviews are a good business assistant that saves on call centers. Company N was one of the first to decide to create such robots to order. The work is simple, but everything has its own nuances and often clients prefer not to do it themselves, but to outsource the creation of such a cunning “call center” to our heroes.

Business on maternity leave as a new support for SMEs

These tips apply to both those who are starting a business and those who are looking for new niches for their existing business. Looking for them is like reinventing the wheel. It seems that all bicycles have already been invented, but there are unique people who would like to buy a bicycle with square wheels or a tandem bicycle. We'll have to look for such unique people with their mini-problems, the solution of which will be greeted with applause!

For example, a federal company - a factory for the production of chocolate candies did not have a single chance to compete for high positions on the shelves in chain stores. Then they focused on the gift segment, and became the only confectioners who produce expensive gift chocolate. Part of the assortment is included in the network, the rest is sold via the Internet and its own retail, where people go to buy special gifts - personal and corporate. 75% of purchases are made by women.

The same niches remain even in declining industries such as publishing, for example. You won’t earn billions here, but it will definitely be enough for the founder and team to earn a good income.

New women's entrepreneurship is also called a separate trend. Mother-entrepreneurs are a new phenomenon in the Russian economy; they well understand their audience of clients related to children in one way or another, and experts believe that this niche has a great chance of development.

Franchising is also considered an undervalued business niche. , and companies that learn to scale their business wisely have a great chance of success.

Bottom line

1. There are almost no niches left for small businesses - the majority of positions in the market are occupied by corporations with enormous resources and a margin of safety. In addition, the mechanism for providing government contracts to small and medium-sized businesses is not working well yet. When starting a new start, it is important to analyze and understand what client needs are not being met by the corporation. And then there is every chance of success. There is no point in opening a grocery store next to Magnit. But opening a shop with fresh fish promises profit.
2. A crisis is a time for the emergence of new small niches related to the desire of both businesses and ordinary people to save money. This is where great opportunities lie for organizing a new business or launching new products.
3. Franchising is one of those niches that remains undervalued year after year. Interest in franchises is consistently high, but there are few truly good offers. Anyone who can offer a good franchise to the market will succeed.

Sooner or later, a person is faced with the question: continue to work “for his uncle” or try his hand at his own business. An independent business means personal and financial independence, the realization of ambitions, and status. But at the same time, these are increased risks and full responsibility for the final result. The success of future entrepreneurship is largely determined by the correct choice of business niche, which we will talk about in this article.

1. Decide on the business direction

Choosing a direction for future activity is the most important step for a beginning businessman. There is no need to grab headlong for the first (even popular) idea you come across. You need to soberly assess not only the prospects of the direction, but also your own capabilities for entering the chosen field and developing in it. It is desirable that the niche meets at least one (and ideally all) criteria:

• You should like the chosen direction. A business that you do with pleasure is more pleasant and easier to develop. Many businessmen called themselves happy only because they turned their hobby into a business. As a result, you receive both moral and material rewards.
• You must have competence in the chosen direction. Even if the niche in your profile is quite competitive, good professional knowledge and skills should help you take your share of the market.
• The services and goods offered must be in demand. The well-known formula from classical economics “demand creates supply” is relevant at all times. Of course, there are high-risk areas in which venture companies introduce fundamentally new products to the markets: in fact, the reverse formula works - the manufacturer creates demand with the help of a completely new product or service. But this option is more suitable as an additional option if you have an existing, efficient business. At the initial stage, the risks must be justified.

2. Assess the prospects

It's good when you have a clear idea of ​​what you want to do and how to go about it. But more often than not, when choosing a niche for a business, you start tossing between different options. Therefore, it is better to make a shortlist of ideas that you think will work in your execution. Having compiled such a list, you can begin to more carefully evaluate each idea in terms of opportunities and threats.

First of all, you need to understand two things:

• Who is your consumer in each potential niche?
• What are the prospects for each direction?

You need to clearly understand what customer needs your business will satisfy. Potential consumers are money, and they need to be assessed using various mechanisms: surveys of friends, thematic forums, groups on social networks, expert opinions. You need to create consumer profiles for each selected niche.

The chosen area must have development prospects. It makes no sense to invest in a direction that, although in demand now, has a tendency to “shrink” in the near future.

3. We weigh our options

The entry threshold is different everywhere, and this is influenced by various objective and subjective factors. When assessing each promising niche, these factors should be taken into account, even those that at first glance may seem insignificant:

• Competition. You need to understand who your competitors are and what advantages you will give potential clients. If the supply in a niche is excessive, and you are not ready to offer competitive advantages, then even knowledge and desire will not help you gain any significant position in the market.
• Your potential. We are talking about internal and external potential. Assess not only your personal capabilities, but also the capabilities of your environment. A childhood friend can become the first supplier of components, a wife’s friend can become a target audience and at the same time “word of mouth” advertising, an influential acquaintance can become a lobbyist for interests in the chosen market.
• Start-up capital. It is important to understand the source of financing for starting a business. And if for the service sector this will not be the most significant amount, then for the manufacturing sector it is quite a decent amount. It’s good if you have enough of your own funds, but will you be ready to sacrifice other people’s or credit money?

A thorough study of all factors for each selected niche will help to gradate and compile your personal rating of business ideas. And then all that remains is not to be afraid to take the first step.

4. We count correctly

Drawing up a preliminary business plan for each idea is a rather labor-intensive, but necessary stage. It is important to understand that “the game is worth the trouble” because the ultimate goal of any business is to make a profit. Doing business for the sake of doing business is wrong and will ultimately lead to financial ruin.

It is the insufficient depth of immersion and excessive optimism in calculations at the initial stage that is the main reason for the unprofitability and bankruptcy of most beginning businessmen. When making calculations, you need to focus specifically on the pessimistic forecast. Even a seemingly promising direction with many unmet customer needs is far from a guarantee of a flow of consumers in the first stages of business development. The path from a potential client to a real one is quite long, and you need to be prepared to go through it “in the red.”

When drawing up a preliminary business plan, you need to calculate:

• One-time expenses at the very beginning. This may include the purchase of necessary equipment and tools, the cost of registering an individual entrepreneur or legal entity, purchasing a franchise, licensing, etc. These expenses are one-time and make up the bulk of start-up costs.
• Current or monthly expenses. This includes rent of premises, salaries of employees, utility bills, bank services, tax deductions, purchase of components and other costs. You need to see what you can save on at the beginning, and certain types of work (accounting, website maintenance) can be outsourced. In this case, you need to have a “safety margin” for at least three months, and preferably six months, i.e. be prepared to finance operating costs from your own pocket.
• Revenue plan or revenue. This is precisely the calculation for which optimism is the main enemy. Estimate revenue prospects based on the lower bound to be prepared for reality.
• Supply plan. This is not a pressing issue for the service sector, but is important for manufacturing. The production process must be provided with materials and components evenly and constantly.

A preliminary business plan differs from a full-fledged one, but it is quite sufficient to assess the possibility of entering the chosen business niche.

5. Making the final choice

After going through the previous 4 steps, you will see a more or less clear picture for each business idea. You have preliminary calculations in your hands, an assessment of each direction and an understanding of what needs to be done. Having weighed the prospects of each idea using the proposed methodology, you will end up with a very real niche for your own business.

Be prepared for difficulties in the first stages and be patient: return on investment is not a matter of just one month. But the opening prospects are worth starting your own business.

Anyone who wants to start a company must look for a market, a niche. A business niche is a small area that has the potential to generate income and, by mastering it, you can build a company. A niche can be large or small. Usually, when talking about niches, they mean a small market. But you should start looking for niches that have the potential to grow into a medium-sized business.

When developing niche ideas, it is worth paying attention to a whole range of factors. The success of the niche depends on these factors. The easiest way to measure whether a niche will be profitable is to look at how many copies of a product (product, service) can be sold and at what price. There are niches where you cannot sell a lot of product, but the price of the product can be very high and thus the niche becomes attractive. Below we will look at 5 principles for choosing a niche.

1. See the market.
Seeing a potential market or niche is a constant task for entrepreneurs who want to start a new business. For some, it doesn’t matter what exactly to produce or sell - bicycles and board games or tractors. It is important for other people to love the product - what they are selling. These are usually the majority. That is why you should choose a business niche not only because it is potentially profitable, but also because you like it.

Usually professionals in some field have the skills necessary to create some things, carry out some work. These skills can be used in the future to open your own business. Professionals in a particular field have a number of advantages - they see niches in their professional field and are able to recognize those areas where improvements are needed. In addition, such people usually have all the necessary skills and resources to start a business, often without investment or investment. And even if considerable investments are required, they can immediately figure out who might become an investor.

If you are a professional in some field and you enjoy doing your own thing, then you may want to consider finding a niche in the area where you are most competent. Today, most people start companies not for the money, but rather for the sake of doing things the way they like.

So, it is important to see the market. It’s even better to have several ideas in stock at once, and from the same area. One doesn't work - you can start trying another. Having several ideas from one area in stock at once, you insure the risks of an entrepreneur. For example, it will be much easier for you to start a successful business in the field of agriculture if you have worked in this field and you have about 5-7 ideas on what could be improved. In this case, success will be much closer to you - you have experience in this niche, you see what can be improved, you start doing a project and - even if you have difficulties with this first business - you can still start another company, only with a different idea, in the same niche.

Today, builders, pharmacists, seamstresses can start their own small companies by seeing what needs there are in the area where they are employed. If you calculate everything correctly and set up the process correctly, then you can seriously compete with those companies that are old-timers in the market.

2. Describe the target audience. Let's say you have identified a niche for yourself in business. Now you begin the most interesting stage - testing your idea for viability. The viability of an idea is tested only in practice, in other words, one cannot say for sure that an idea will be 100% successful or fail. There are certain rules that help reduce risks, but you can be 100% sure that you have chosen the right niche only in practice.

This is why it is worth starting the production of prototypes or simply selling the product as quickly as possible - in order to understand whether it is worth pursuing the product further or whether you need to go in search of other ideas. But initially it is important for us to understand who our target audience is - the clients on whom we will test the business. Since we need clients to build a company, we should start looking for them. But in order to look for them, we need to understand who exactly to look for.

So, you need to be clear about who the person is who will buy your product. Describe the person’s age, gender, income, preferences, surroundings, places where he goes - you will get a picture drawn by your imagination and some facts on the basis of which you make guesses. Find 15-20 people who fit your profile. Then offer them your product. If the product “does not work,” you will be able to determine why: either no one needs your product at all, or you have incorrectly defined your target audience.

3. How much money is there in the niche? Repeat sales model. In case you have correctly identified your target audience, you should calculate how much money is there in the niche? It may happen that the niche is very small and you can’t earn almost anything from it. How much money are people willing to spend on your product? Will they come back for him again?

It’s easy with food, cosmetics and all products in the FMCG category - if the buyer likes it, he will come back again. It is much more difficult with other products. Especially when it comes to innovations and products that are difficult to sell. In this case, maybe you shouldn’t get involved in creating a business in this area at all.

4. Deal cycles. The transaction cycle is the period of time that passes from the receipt of a client’s application to the receipt of money in your account. The shorter the deal cycle, the better for the entrepreneur. If a person comes to a store, the transaction cycle takes a few minutes - from taking the product from the shelf (or on the online store website) to payment. If you are engaged in specific building structures, then the transaction cycle will stretch for weeks or even months.

The margin may be large, but all the time while you are negotiating, preparing information for the client, you are forced to pay bills, salaries to employees, and so on. Do you have enough resources and endurance to build such a business? If in doubt, it is best not to take on projects where the deal cycle is several weeks or even months.

5. What you should like and dislike in business. We are approaching a very important point that is important for the project - will your business in the chosen niche be successful? Ultimately, success or failure largely depends on the individual's personal involvement in the project. In any business for which investors give money, it is important that the initiator has a strong interest in the project.

Without participation, without a great desire to build a company, nothing will happen, no matter how hard you try. Personal attitude is of enormous importance. It all has more to do with what you like to do and what you don't. Most people probably find it difficult to prepare accounting reports and submit documents to the tax office, fill a website with goods, and do many other routine things.

Today it is not a problem to outsource everything that you do not like to do. But it’s important to understand what you love to do, and is it possible to build a company based on it? The entrepreneur is required to participate in product development, marketing and sales. Are you ready for this? Will you enjoy selling the product?

Some say that it doesn’t matter to them what kind of business they run or what they sell. We leave this approach to your discretion, but still, the personality of the entrepreneur, the love for your business, the product you make, is often much more important than the willingness to do any business, as long as it is a business and that it generates income.

Usually an entrepreneur finds a niche in an area that excites him. A pregnant woman could not find inexpensive clothes of the appropriate quality and design for herself and created her own store of goods for pregnant women. Someone faced problems enrolling children in kindergarten. Some people are annoyed by queues in supermarkets, and this prompts the idea of ​​alternative food stores.

A bicycle lover cannot quickly choose the right model. Someone’s feet hurt from walking in heels all day, and the idea of ​​comfortable dress shoes is born, and so on. Typically, the scope of solving common problems that millions of people face every day is what finding the perfect business niche is all about. Usually the greatest success is brought by those ideas that are not divorced from life (). And those who built a company based on an idea are usually people who themselves felt discomfort from some unresolved problems and wanted to solve them, first of all, for themselves.

Finding a niche to create a business is both simple and complex.

This may be related to your professional qualities and skills, as we described at the beginning. This could be something in the area of ​​solving problems that you yourself face on a daily basis. In any case, have a list of several ideas and start working on them from the very first idea. If the experiment doesn’t work out, you can move on to the next point - and so on until you finally find something that you are really interested in doing and that generates income.