Avoid the myths, find a good niche

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Sep 24, 2005 by Capital-Journal

In a "Peanuts" comic strip, the scene is a classroom on the first day of school. The students have been asked to write an essay about returning to school.

Lucy writes: "Vacations are nice, but it's good to get back to school. There is nothing more satisfying or challenging than education, and I look forward to a year of expanding knowledge."

The teacher is pleased with Lucy and compliments her on her fine essay. Leaning over to Charlie Brown, Lucy whispers, "After a while, you learn what sells."

Finding a niche is finding what sells. I call it "niche picking." And I'd like to dispel four myths about the process:

- Myth one: A niche has to be chic.

Domino's made no pretense about being upscale, but it figured out how to successfully and predictably deliver hot pizzas to people before they had a chance to sober up and get a fancier one.

- Myth two: A niche has to be new.

- Myth three: A niche shouldn't be too narrow.

Don't assume that because your niche is larger, it is better.

- Myth four: A niche has to be neat. Not every niche is defined with the sharpness of a surgeon's scalpel. There are liquor stores in the toniest sections of Manhattan, Chicago's Gold Coast and Beverly Hills that do as much volume in Chateau Ripple, vintage Wednesday, as Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, vintage 1895. No one, no matter how wealthy, eats caviar and drinks champagne every day. It isn't that the rich can't afford it. It's that it gets as boring as anything else if it becomes routine. There are a lot more rich folks with palates like Elvis than epicures.

The trick isn't to fill up a niche. It's to fill up a customer.

Mackay's Moral: If you can't please everybody, please somebody.

Harvey Mackay can be reached at www.mackay.com or Mackay Envelope Corp., 2100 Elm St., Minneapolis, MN 55414.

United Feature Syndicate.