3-2-1-Find your niche
I spent 30 years of my life being told what to do. After I retired, I spent another 10 years of my life as an entrepreneur telling myself what to do, But what I was doing was not important to me. It was just a way to make money.
When I finally realized I didn't like what I was doing, I sat down at my desk and followed Ben Franklin's advice. I wrote down on paper what I liked to do and what I disliked doing, what I thought was important and what was a waste of time.
I am passionate about maintaining a livable earth and being free to make my own choices. I can sum up my life passion in two words. Live Sustainably.
Sustainability
Sustainability is based on three things:
- Personal growth: I'm a polymorph. I specialize in one thing I'm really good at, and I am curious. I want to know as much as possible about many things,.
- Being prepared to deal with emergencies and respond to opportunities.
- Having the income needed to pay my bills and pursue my interests.
Financial resilience
Now the question is how do I create the income I need to live life on my terms. For most people, their choices are:
- work for someone in a job that compliments my passion.
- keep my job and develop a side business
- quit my job and attempt to be a full-time entrepreneur.
I was lucky. I come from a generation where you got a good education, got a job with a big corporation or worked for the Government till you could retire. I enjoyed my work and felt it was worthwhile. I retired with a dependable income.
What are your options?
It doesn't work that way anymore. Jobs, even government jobs are not guaranteed. Many people are willing to drift through life responding to external forces beyond their control. If they are satisfied, it is a good choice.
Others want to take control of their lives. They know what they want to accomplish, and they plan what they must do to live their dreams. The internet has provided us a low-cost way to earn the income we need to be free to do what we want.
I don't recommend quitting your job. I do recommend you develop a business you can scale up and fall back on if you suddenly find yourself out of work.
Find Your niche
I know I want to help people create more sustainable lives, and I want to leave a livable planet to my grandchildren. However, that is far too broad a niche. The tighter you can focus your niche the easier it will be to find people who value what you offer.
For instance, Babies is a broad niche. Baby diapers is more narrow, and cloth baby diapers will attract people who want to know how to buy and use cloth diapers.
In my case, sustainability will be hard to monetize. But, there are lots of people who need too prepared for emergencies.
My interests are personal growth and development, financial resilience, and taking care of our earth. All three interests make up the three basics of sustainability.
In the next issue of 3-2-1, we will find the niche we want to develop.
Recent Comments
3
An excellent post here, Bill! It is certainly a little harder these days, but so worthwhile when we are able to take control of our own employment, especially in these times of uncertainty!
Jeff
Thanks for sharing your process of discovering what you are interested in. It is be exciting to see how you narrow it down to reach a specific audience.
Good post, Bill. I am very pleased with my niche, though it is very broad. However, it's given me room to find plenty of topics to write about. I fit here because I know something about the subject and have learned a lot more about it over the last two years. I must be becoming close to an expert! That is good, as it will give me needed credibility.
Your niche sounds very interesting, and like a good one to keep you occupied and stimulated. Best of luck with its development.