a. A situation or activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature.

b. A special area of demand for a product or service.

Niching (tr.v.)

To place in a niche.

As a Virtual Assistant (VA), you know about filling a niche because you are already doing it simply by being a VA. You cater to administrative, technical, creative, and financial needs of your clients by assisting them virtually. This itself is a niche.

If you’re like many entrepreneurs when first starting in business, you took every job that came along. You did it from a place of necessity. Even if you thought yours was exception, no company can meet every need of every client throughout life of a business. There is no doubt, however, that this approach serves us well in beginning!

If you are an exceptional entrepreneur who has developed a reputation of excellence in everything you do, eventually you will need to make important decisions about future of your company because you have more business than you are able to manage. What a dilemma! You are no longer in a place where you must accept work because it provides revenue. Your hard work has brought you to where you have opportunity to pick-and-choose your clients from this point forward.

This is perfect time not only to increase your fees, but also to decide on specific industry or industries and type(s) of clients you most want to serve. This is known as niching.

By narrowing your focus, you: • have opportunity to work with people in industry of your choice. • have inside exposure to different aspects/news of industry from perspective/experience of your clients. • can position yourself as VA expert within your industry and use this to market your services, e.g. “We cater to ____ industry and are first and only ones to do so. We are best equipped to meet your needs because we know industry from inside out!” • will have passion and tenacity on those days when you question your sanity and wonder if you truly have what it takes to be a VA. You will be serving an industry you love and that will carry you to your next new client/task. • keep your focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over life of your business. • are maintaining a concentrated marketing/advertising focus instead of diluting your efforts by trying to meet every need of every client in every field. • increase your ability to get an hourly rate that is higher than a VA business with no niche focus. If you have insider knowledge of a specific industry, your expertise is more valuable and therefore, you can charge more for your services.

Starting a New Business Preparing to "Get Started" in your new business By Ryan Hoback, Motivated Entrepreneur Incubation & Consulting

The biggest problem I had in “Getting Started” on making my idea into a practical business reality was my own fear. Whether it was fear of unknown, fear of failure, or some other unknown fear I possessed, it was keeping me from reaching my potential. What I learned through experience, and to quote FDR, “The only thing to fear in starting your business, is your own fear itself”.

With proper research, planning and delegation of responsibility, there is no reason your idea, service, or product cannot succeed. In your pursuit towards fulfilling goals you have laid forth, you must stay focused on management of your daily routine; however you should always be thinking toward future. Remain creative in your approach towards using conventional tools, methods, and processes that are needed to succeed in business. In today’s society, we have unparallel access to all necessary resources and tools you would ever need to educate yourself on various business subjects.

The question becomes, how do I access vast amount of resources that are available in most productively efficient manner? The short answer is; visit a consulting firm which offers a step by step guide to starting your business. The Motivated Entrepreneur is a full service consulting firm that offers a wide range of services that vary from simple incorporation consultation packages at very economical prices, to more complex detailed full business packages which include business plan preparation, along with marketing, public relations, advertising, and financial services.

As far as information is concerned, there are numerous places to access business tools and information on World Wide Web. As mentioned above The Motivated Entrepreneur is a great online source of business information. However, best source on internet to supply you with documented information you are looking for is Small Business Administration website, SBA.gov. No matter what route you choose to take, whether it is through business consultation or solely through your own hard work and ingenuity, you should always review government information provided on their website to make sure you are heading in right direction.

The next step is to start organizing your information and material so that you can develop a clear direction and begin to integrate this direction into your business plan & organizational structure. The first step is to develop a rough business plan, a rough business plan is necessary for you to verbalize your thoughts into a visual medium. This will allow you to gain an added perspective for use as critique on your own thoughts; it is a great aid to helping establish type of legal form of organization that will best suit your structure of business from a tax perspective.

When approaching you rough business plan, you should break it down into sections. Below is a simple guideline that can be used to conceptualize your plan.

Introduction • Give a detailed description of business and its goals. • List skills and experience you bring to business. • Discuss advantages you and your business have over your competitors.

Marketing • Discuss products/services offered; identify customer demand for your product/service. • Identify your market, its size and locations.