...Get idea?

Once you narrow down size of market you have an automatic advantage over larger companies. Here's why :

* You can quickly become an expert in your niche (if you're not already)

* It's easier to keep current with a narrowly focussed market niche

* You can respond faster to changes in market

* You can build close relationships with key customers that will be hard to compete with

This is something I learned from experience - if you're interested you can read my story here http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/articles/andre-anthony-value-of-niche-marketing.htm.

By now you're probably wondering about mechanics of this niche marketing stuff. In a nutshell here's how it works :

* Find and research profitable niche markets

* Locate or develop suitable products/services to market

* Set up a web site to market products/services

* Establish a marketing system that works for you

* Repeat process over and over again with a different niche each time.

Imagine having a niche site producing one sale a day at say $20. That's $7300 a year - how many sites could you set up and run 10, 20 ....?

But before you get too excited, I have a word of caution for you:

Niche marketing is not a magic bullet. It isn't a matter of putting up a web site and then sitting back and waiting for money to roll in - "build it and they will come" may have worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it doesn't work that way on Internet - if you do that you'll be waiting a long time.

If you want a successful niche business, you have to work at it just like any other business - if you're prepared to put in effort though rewards can be significant.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How

I was more than a little sceptical, I have to admit, but I had nothing to lose so I went for it. I wrote a short, snappy sales letter, scraped together money, mailed out to 100+ dealers on list and crossed my fingers.

48 hours later we had our first order for 10 cables, within 7 days we had 11 more orders for 10 cables each.

That one small mailing brought us an amazing 12% initial response - and it just kept going from there with week after week of repeat orders.

Pretty soon after that, my wife Maxine joined business and set up a telephone sales desk and customer service system. By that time we were averaging about £1000 a week and that was from just one cable type.

At that point I dumped subcontract work and focussed on cable business.

Once Maxine took over sales function she immediately followed up with companies who hadn't responded to our initial mailing. That brought in another 26 new customers. Within six months we were supplying most of major Dealers and Distributors in then burgeoning PC market and our cable sales had quadrupled.

Inside a year in this niche business we were selling thousands of computer cables of all descriptions, including highly lucrative custom formats, and we were being asked to provide advice on how to design cables for specific applications - we had arrived - we were now acknowledged experts - customer loyalty rocketed and by 1988 our turnover reached £400,000+ with gross profits of 50% or more.

Now I'm first to admit that luck played a hand in turning my company's fortunes around, but experience taught me my most valuable lesson in business - you have to focus on a specific, under-served market niche if you want to be really successful in business.

I have applied this premise to four other businesses since then and, with one exception, all have been successful.

My advice? Find yourself a small, focused market niche (the Internet is full of them) where you can carve a reputation for yourself and become an expert in field - like I did.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How