If you even slightest thought of selling anything online, you must be able to answer one question before you do anything...

Who wants to buy your product or service?

If you're going to sell, there has to be a market that will buy, it's an irrefutable law of business and it applies to online businesses as well.

"Catering to a niche" or "specializing" or "targeting a market," whatever you call it, it's key to a small business succeeding on Internet.

Let Amazon or Ebay sell everything to everyone. Small online businesses target a few select markets and give those markets special attention that only small businesses can give.

Find Your Markets

First, you should just ask yourself question I posed earlier, "Who wants to buy my product or service?"

Most small businesses know their market well; they just have to think about it for a second.

For example, let's take web design. We start by making of list of anyone that might need web design:

* Individuals * Churches * Schools * Small Businesses * Large Businesses * Etc.

Target Your Markets

When you look at that small list, you start to realize that each market has it's own needs, budget, and reason for needing web design.

1. Look beyond a person’s title to their sphere of influence. Some people are in leadership roles and we wonder how and why. When looking to develop leaders, look to those who demonstrate a strong set of skills in work quality, ability to get along with others at all levels, and who seem to naturally command respect. These people are frequently not obvious to managers because they don’t look for them in outside where they "expect" to discover them. As a result, those skills and talents are often greatly under utilized. These potential leaders need to be nourished because they often don’t see themselves in that role either.

2. Discover personal interests of people you are working with. Show you care about them as individuals. This does not mean being nosy but instead attentive and caring about their progress personally and professionally. Don’t just do this during a review period or when you need something. Practicing this habit is necessary all year round to develop a good relationship with those you interact with. You don’t have to be their friend, but it never hurt anybody to be friendly and to offer encouragement and a pinpointed remark to help develop good communication and camaraderie.

3. In conjunction with your employee, co-worker, or other team members, set up short-term and long-term goals you can each live with. You may not be in agreement on all points but as long as you each see benefit, then it’s easier to live with steps in between. I believe that an important element in this procedure is to act as mentors and role models for each other. That's right - each other. Leaders need to be reminded of who is accomplishing day-to-day operation of any enterprise. Provide guidelines, understanding of why something is being done in a certain way, and on-going support.