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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to find a durable niche business, July 16, 2003
This review is from: Niche and Grow Rich (Paperback)
This is a great entrepreneurial book: one that I wished I could have written on the value of having a niche for your business. The authors go to great lengths to get the reader to understand the concept of a niche, then show you many ways to generate ideas for new businesses to satisfy their criteria of a good niche. They contrast a niche versus a fad versus a trend and give you creativity techniques that work along side of analytical techniques. They also point out that a good niche is easily publicized and advertised. To them, a niche is just not a small market. For example, a niche is not just serving a small community... a niche requires a commonality of needs among the customers. So, a niche would be selling to the boat owners in a small town, not selling general products to that small town. Thus, a niche has more easily identifiable customers. The chapters include: 1 Niche: What's That?
2 Are You a Good Niche or a Bad Niche?
3 Finding a Good Niche
4 Where there's a trend, there's probably a niche
5 Taking Your Niche Online
6 Six Steps to evaluating a niche
7 Can you find a franchise niche
8 How to proect your business idea
9 Will you ever get noticed
10 Basic steps for opening a niche business
11 Go forth and niche This should be REQUIRED READING FOR STARTUPS. I liked this book very much. It is very practical and useful. John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book on why and how to narrow your niche ..., June 23, 2006
This review is from: Niche and Grow Rich (Paperback)
... I've discovered after reading five books that covered this topic for my book, SmartPartnering.
The authors' extensive experience in publishing, and in running niche-based businesses shows. Their writing is practical, conversational and - most importantly - specific (no fluff).
Niche and Grow Rich is helpful for both those fleeing corporate life and the seasoned business owners who are seeking higher profitability.
Every boomer looking for more independence, money and satisfaction with their work in this next chapter of their life should get this book to smooth their way: matching their interests and experience with the kind of market they will be adept at and happy to serve.
I've recommended this book from the platform at 48 conferences so far and have received only raving emails from those who bought it.
- Kare Anderson, author SmartPartnering, Walk Your Talk, Getting What You Want, Resolving Conflict Sooner, Beauty Inside Out, etc.(sayitbetter.com)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
niche: what makes a business different, June 23, 2007
This review is from: Niche and Grow Rich (Paperback)
A niche business is one that serves a small geographic area or a small portion of a big market where the needs of the customers are more specific, more specialized. The main advantage of a niche business is the lack of direct competition.
I was first introduced to this concept reading J.J. Luna's books. One of J.J. Luna's own experiences of niche businesses is the alarm company he established in Canary Islands in 1960's. There was virtually no crime in Canary Islands until there was an increase in international trade and the seamen from foreign ships started breaking into jewelry shops and stealing the goods just before their ship left the harbor for high sees. In response to the new need, J.J. Luna ordered some alarm systems from the U.S., analyzed them and developed a system of his own. His company was the only company which can address a specific need.
This excellent book by Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander is about the same concept of niche business. It starts with a section describing what niche is and goes on to other chapters about how to discover such a niche idea; how to evaluate if your idea is a good, feasible one. In order to better clarify the meaning of the concept, perhaps it is a good idea to give examples of niche businesses from the book.
One of them is the mother who had children with milk allergies. She experimented baking with different ingredients and ended up with a number of recipes which tasted excellent and children with such allergies could eat. When she discovered that there is an interest coming from other people with the same problem, she started a bakery specializing in allergy-safe products. She was, and continuous to be, the only one serving a small section of the public.
Another one is the gentleman who wanted to get back to his teenage hobby of riding a unicycle. He discovered that there was nobody around who sells unicycles and it was difficult even to get them through mail order, and there wasn't a large selection. He launched unicyle.com as a side business but in a short time, his business grew big enough to convince him to quit his job at IBM after 23 years. It turns out there was a good number of people who are interested in unicycles, who had the same problems as this gentlemen in finding them. He had discovered a niche market.
"Niche and Grow Rich" goes beyond just describing what a niche business is and how to discover one of your own and evaluating if your idea is a good one. In later chapters, it examines related topics about establishing your company, protecting your idea with trademark laws, considering going online, getting recognition, etc. Many enthusiastic would-be internet entepreneurs might find the "taking your niche online" chapter interesting. Generally, the book suggests caution and a resistance to the temptation to going online under the assumption that any new idea is sure to make a lot of money on the internet. In fact, it says that internet serves only as a brochure for many businesses and nothing more. In the case of unicycle.com it worked because the needs of unicyclist can't be efficiently served through traditional channels. There simply aren't enough riders for a small bicycle store owner to justify stocking more than one model, if they stock any at all.
Overall, this is an excellent book which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anybody.
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