Choosing Your Direction - It Starts With a Niche

As I go through each of the classes that Wealthy Affiliate has to offer to assist me in building a strong foundation for my online business, I come to a road block – how do I find my niche?

In 2000, my husband, Mark, and I went to a non-profit boot camp for a week to help us establish our business. We had already come up with our vision and mission, or so we thought, but it was the first time we had been asked to nail down our “Core Values” and our “Target Group”.

These two things brought it all into focus and helped us to build a foundation that would carry us through successes and failures in the years to come. Why do we do what we do? Who do we want to reach? Who will benefit from our services? We were serving in a small community so we were able to pair our values with our target group and it kept us on track. For awhile. But it was husband's dream, not mine although I enjoyed the journey with him for awhile.

Now I am venturing on this immense world of ecommerce. What do I have to offer to this vast audience? How do I narrow down my target group?

After the initial wave of panic, I take a deep breath and refocus on my values.

What stands out about my personality, my passion, my education or maybe a life experience? How would others describe me? What would THEY say is important to me? Do I find myself quoting a certain word or phrase? Am I drawn to certain social groups? Or maybe I am repulsed by something I see happening in this vast audience and feel compelled to jump in and make a difference.

Then it hits me. I’m all about the power of Choice. I find myself responding to expressions of despair and complacency, negativity and gossip, pride and manipulation with a wild desire to coach family, friends, co-workers and even strangers about our ability to choose our attitudes, actions and responses to everything life has to throw at us. (That was a run-on sentence – please forgive me Mom.)

Not everyone has a “wild desire”. But maybe you find yourself leaning more and more toward “going green”, “made in the USA”, gluten-free, gaming, exercise, relationships, health, comfort, gadgets, travel, animals, nature, cities… You might love things that make life easier. Or maybe you like to stir things up and delight in shock value. These are all excellent starting places for a business niche.

In fact, a catchy phrase such as “shock-value” may be the very start of a thriving business. It can be incorporated into your name, mission and vision, logo and you can get creative promoting products and services. If you decide to use it (if it is not already taken), I'd love a commission.

Have you figured out what my niche is?