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Finding your niche

We met Jake at KFC in Fredrick, Maryland on our way to visiting historic downtown Fredrick. Jake was working with the Postal Service, and on his lunch break – wink, wink! He was telling us he just came back from Iraq. While he looked OK, Jake went through a great deal with his injuries. Fortunately, the army provided some limited long term benefits to help him along his way. 

Jake took the position at the Post Office as a starting point until he figured what to do. One thing he was working on was an educational grant for college courtesy of Uncle Sam. The second opportunity was entrepreneurial. He wanted to eventually do something on his own, but he didn’t know what.

The obvious question

“What’s your passion?” I asked. He didn’t directly say what he wanted to do, but he had mentioned that he had friends in the music and recording industry. In fact, his pals invited Jake to come along and help out, especially when they went overseas. But then, he drifted back and thought about not knowing exactly what to do. I said he was very lucky in the fact that he had inside connections. Entrepreneurs jump at the chance to “move with people” that are in the business they want to be in.

I didn’t discuss it with him at the time but there were several suggestions that would’ve opened a path to identifying a specific niche for Jake.

Let’s see what he had going for him:

• Connections – he knew some people in the business who were already successful
• Education – possible free ride courtesy of Uncle Sam
• Limited financial support – allowing him to focus and concentrate on his ideas

What did Jake need?

• Focus
• Experience
• Drive-Determination

Jake is pretty young and I really don’t know how driven he could be. But if he is willing to work at the Post Office and doesn’t have to, he has my vote for drive and determination. Focus was the pivotal point. If he could only harness his relationship with his friends into a business, he will be all right, but where to start?

So in order for Jake to narrow his focus, he needed to ask himself questions.

• How does he help his friends out? Is it a skill that is repeatable for others and has assignable value?
• What other skills does he have that can be of value, and could he adopt those?
• Do his friends need other skills that he could provide or learn, or could he eventually find resources to supply those skills?

Make a list to find a niche

Whereas we may not be in the same situation as Jake, the process to find our entrepreneurial niche is the same. The big thrust is to make a list of ideas that can possibly work. You don’t want to do everything on the list. Remember you are looking to eventually build a brand for yourself by narrowing down to a niche. If you happen to be able to do PR and accounting, your potential customers are going to have trouble deciding what you specialize in. Focus on one thing and one thing only, and then build your brand around that.

To make it work for Jake, he has to narrow his focus by asking some tough questions of what he could do, how it could be profitable and repeatable, and what steps he would need to take to make it happen. When you find the crossroad of what is needed by others and what you can do for them, you have found your niche.

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