Choosing a business niche. Questions, mistakes, technology. How to identify it and increase sales conversion The best niches for business from scratch

Evgeniy Shleenkov - founder and general director of the Shmel Entrepreneurship Development Center, co-founder of the construction company Eurodom, owner of the DiMaestri coffee company, business coach and business consultant, wrote a column for us about choosing a niche.

The most common question I hear from beginning businessmen is: “What is more profitable (better, more interesting) to do?” It’s the same as asking: “What profession should I choose to be rich (happy, successful, etc.)?” There is no universal tool for choosing a business niche. This is a personal decision and personal path for everyone. However, I understand where these questions arise: today there is so much information that it is impossible to understand what is still missing in this prosperous and goods-filled world. And if we take the area of ​​online sales, then at first glance it will seem that everything is available on the Internet. What they offer us, and what colorful sites they lure us in with. And in all this diversity, how can you avoid becoming one of the millions? Once again, there is no magic pill. Business is an organism, and it’s difficult to say how it will behave in your specific situation. But there is analytics, experience and a set of knowledge that will help you make a balanced and, most importantly, informed decision.

A niche is the basis of any business. As the sailors say: whatever you name the ship, that’s how it will sail. So it is here: the choice of a business niche often determines its success. People spend a lot of money and effort on advertising and marketing, but in the end they don’t get the response they want. And the reason is the wrong niche. Because if consumers are not ready to buy your product today, no colorful website or newsletter will help. They just don't need it today, that's all. Therefore, at the very beginning, take the issue of choosing a niche seriously.

Remember, the niche you choose must meet three main criteria:

1. The product is beneficial

In this case, product is a more expanded concept; it can be both a product and a service. Today, more and more, we are moving away from selling physical things into the sphere of solving problems or fulfilling people's desires for their own money in the best possible way. Today it is not enough to simply buy cheaper and sell more expensive. The market is so crowded with goods that it is almost impossible to beat the price. will ruin your business. And your goal should not be just the desire to sell, but to sell exactly the right thing or service to those who really need it. Price is no longer an advantage. Your main task is to understand what benefits what you sell brings and what it gives to people. There is a wonderful film on this topic - “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The main character is desperately trying to sell medical equipment that people simply don’t need. Or necessary, but not for those he called. The story ended well, by the way. However, in real life, such mistakes lead to great losses and disappointments.

2. The product should evoke emotions

Our brain consists of two hemispheres: left and right. The first is responsible for logic, the second for emotions. In the first case, you can convince your customers to make a purchase through comparison, USP, benefits, expert assessments, and so on. In this case, people evaluate you and your product, compare with competitors, find pros and cons. In the second case, you evoke emotions. A person sees your product and wants to buy it. There are no reasons or they are too abstract: I want that and that’s it, because it’s cool. Women often shop for clothes and shoes using their left brain. That’s why we often hear phrases like this: “I saw this dress and realized that it was mine,” “These shoes are like from that magazine.” A friend of mine who drives the latest Bentley once told me: “The people who understand this car best are those who will never buy it. I knew absolutely nothing about this model; one glance was enough for me to understand that I wanted this car.” Price is a very secondary consideration here. If you really like the item, you won’t ask the price.

3. You are an expert in your chosen niche

A mandatory rule is to understand what you are selling. If you don’t know your chosen product well yet, learn. Today, you don’t even have to get up from your desk to do this: there are a lot of educational videos on the Internet about everything. Otherwise, your incompetence will be detected immediately. The consumer is not a fool, he just won’t want to spend his money, so you’ll be faced with a barrage of questions, half of which you simply don’t expect. You must not only know your product, but also the chosen niche, the characteristics of competitors, all possible alternatives, technical capabilities, history, and so on. It is impossible to know everything. However, if you decide to start your own business, be demanding first of all of yourself. Amateurs are immediately visible and this greatly reduces the level of trust.

Also, the following points are very important:

4. Do not purchase goods in advance

A very common mistake among beginning businessmen is making large investments. If you think your product is the bomb and everyone will want to buy it tomorrow, run a test. Make an ad on Avito and see what kind of response there is. Or ask your friends and acquaintances if they would be interested in buying this product. The McDonald brothers once worked for hire (yes, this happened to them once). They realized that time spent on lunch could be used productively. Instead of visiting a restaurant, they began to take a quick snack with them - a bun and a cutlet. As a result, lunch was shortened by 40 minutes, during which time they made calls. As a result, the results improved. After the first award, colleagues themselves began to become interested in the recipe for success. This is how the idea of ​​“fast food” was born. Later there was the first restaurant and waiters on roller skates. Life itself gives us ideas for business. And if you are sure that new Chinese phones will definitely explode the market, try to collect at least the first twenty orders with prepayment and only after that make a purchase. Otherwise, it may turn out that no one needs phones now, since a new Samsung has come out and all that remains is to dump them.

5. Solve life situations. Don't try to "sell"

A very important point is the ethics of your communication with the buyer. Don't try to sell your service at any cost. Go from the opposite - why they might turn to you for it. Pay attention to the most famous brands. They don't sell themselves, they sell an idea. Of course, Apple is the clearest example when selling technology turns into selling a lifestyle. Today this is a whole philosophy, a fashion trend, an unquenchable classic. All together and in one small phone or laptop. They sell us technology that can make our lives easier and communications faster. We choose a convenient, and most importantly functional design. And of course, the left hemisphere turns on! Such an integrated approach to selling its products has made the company a leader!

6. Study trends, catch the wave

There is one more concept - this is fashion. The phenomenon is very controversial and ambiguous, and also fleeting. Sometimes the lifespan of one trend is only one or two months. But competent salespeople make millions from this. Today, environmental friendliness is the trend. The greens won and filled everything around with the postscript - eco and bio. Today we see eco-fur coats, eco-cars, eco-food. People stopped eating meat, which led to the emergence of countless bio-markets both in reality and online. Another trend is local marketing: local food, local designers, local handmade markets and so on. In fact, today you can easily make money on anything you make with your own hands. For the New Year it could be handmade garlands, for March 8th - bouquets of vegetables, in the summer - signature smoothies made from celery and oak bark. Imagine, try it yourself, don’t be afraid to create things with your own hands: the more it looks like handmade, the faster and more expensive you will sell it. Stay on trend and don’t forget, everything has its deadline. Especially in the modern world.

7. Use analytics

Before purchasing a product or opening your own online school for anything, study the market. Recently, novice businessmen rely on Yandex Direct. The method is good, but not always correct. Remember, a request in a search engine is not a sale. Very often, a speech by a famous person on TV or a bright advertisement generates a surge in requests for a particular product. For example, you are offered to buy a car for only 300,000. And you enter the model in a search engine and compare prices. You start wondering how much this car cost before. As a result, there are thousands of requests for this car, but this is only temporary activity and is not a fact that the car is at the peak of sales. I would recommend looking at analytics on coupon sites. If you go to past promotions, you can see at what time and what services were sold. They actually sold, you know. A query in a search engine is simply a search for information; it is not always a purchase. See real analytics, where you can clearly see what kind of product and how many people bought it. Only in this case can we talk about the demand for a particular product.

Don't rush to earn money. Emotions only harm business. Be extremely careful and prudent. Today everything can be sold, even air from the Himalayas. There would be a desire and there would be demand. Therefore, before you rush to conclude an agreement with suppliers, test what you want to sell, conduct an in-depth analysis and be sure that you already have the required number of orders for the successful sale of the first batch. Take your time and believe in yourself and your product. Good luck!

Evgeniy Shleenkov, founder and general director of the Shmel Center for Entrepreneurship Development, co-founder of the construction company Eurodom, owner of the coffee company DiMaestri, shared life hacks that will help you come up with an idea for a business and test its strength.

Where does the business start?

Let’s not idealize and talk about ideas that suddenly came in a dream: and now you woke up like this and ran to implement what you saw. It happens. But these are rather exceptions to the rule. Business starts with your personal choice. You decide to open your own business and clearly understand what you want to get in the end. Then it’s a matter of technology and knowledge. But the very first step is that very choice. What exactly do I want to do?

If we take the field of online sales, then the very first question you should ask yourself is what do I want to sell? The niche of your future business is your foundation, the basis for all subsequent actions. And if you lay a weak and shabby foundation, you will most likely be disappointed and suffer losses after a while.

I have seen many examples of successful niche selection, for example, the Taxovichkof company, which began offering nanny drivers with child seats in each car, or Airbnb, which created a site for safe rental housing, and vice versa, when people were in a hurry, they rushed into the pool, invested millions and ended up with nothing. Thus, McDonalds tried several times to launch a line of healthy food and even created a service for VIPs, however, they failed miserably: customers love the restaurant precisely because it is democratic and accessible.

A sober analysis of what you want to do in the future is the first thing that should worry you, not a beautiful website or booklets. So, before you start realizing yourself in a new niche, evaluate how well your choice meets the following criteria:

1. You must solve people's problems with your product.

What do people pay money for? For pleasure and the opportunity to solve their pain. If you have trouble seeing, you look for glasses. If you're hot, you look for a water or ice cream stall. And so on.

Look around and think about what problems you have that are still not so easy to deal with.

There was an interesting story in my practice: Once I was stuck in a traffic jam in the summer, it was +30 degrees outside, the heat was terrible. Young guys knock on my window and offer me magazines. What can I say, at that moment I would have given anything for a bottle of water and a Snickers, my body was so exhausted. And I looked around and saw the same unhappy faces in the neighboring cars.

What we did: They hired guys who, in the daily traffic jam, offered drivers not magazines of dubious content, but water and snacks. The cost is minimal, we recovered the costs in the first few days of work.

What makes this event successful? The fact is that we didn’t try to sell people what we thought they needed. We offered what they need most now. And this example can be transferred to any niche. Look around, think about what worries people today, what they would like to change and improve.

Among the famous new products of last year, we can highlight an application that broke the figure of 10 million downloads in the first week alone. And all why? People are tired of standard photo processing filters in . They were given an application that allowed them to edit their photos in the style of a famous artist. As simple as possible and to the point. The creators felt the pain and created a product for it. This is the secret of any startup.

2. Your product must provide value.

Don't try to make light of the significance and importance of what you do. Assess the situation realistically.

Is your buyer willing to pay an amount for what you are offering him? If I’m offered water in a traffic jam, I’m ready to buy it for a reasonable 50–100 rubles, but if I’m offered the same product for 500 rubles, I’ll endure it until the next gas station.

The same thing with branded clothing - if you are trying to sell branded items in a small city, but at the prices of a Moscow department store - do not be surprised that your customers will refuse such an expensive purchase and go to the same aliexpress, where they can buy a copy ten times cheaper. The quality will be lower, yes, but for this audience the price is the decisive factor.

Be sure to analyze whether your customer is willing to pay for your product, no matter how good it is.

Here I can’t help but give an example at the beginning of the journey:

Attempts to create a computer for the whole family that cost several thousand dollars failed miserably and cost Jobs his job. Only years later the entrepreneur was able to return to the company and still complete his project, significantly reducing the cost of the final product.

If you want to create a consumer product, analyze how much your customer is willing to pay for it. Precisely ready, but not supposed to. Don't build sandcastles about people flying your product off store shelves. In an age of very fierce competition, your chance is one in a million.

3. Fast transaction cycle: make profit immediately

Now we are talking about small businesses and opportunities for beginners and not only entrepreneurs to start their own business here and now. Therefore, the strategy should be as short-term as possible.

If you see that your product is selling quickly, you can lower your markup to increase conversion. If you require promotion and, accordingly, financial and time costs, the price must increase. However, do not try to make money, act honestly and openly.

For example, a successful startup once did not spend money on a vehicle fleet and hiring employees. Basically, the company consisted of several people. They created an application where everyone could make money from taxi services. You register, take an order, get paid. Everything is as simple and fast as possible. Today, Uber is a global giant and the most successful taxi company in recent years. And all thanks to the successful combination - low price and convenient service.

The consumer always reacts very sharply to two things: an artificially high price (“they want to make money on me”) and too low a cost (“poor quality product”).

4. Sell emotions, not products.

Remember that people want bread and circuses. Don't try to present your product too rationally, especially if it concerns the entertainment sector. For example, Party-bus, popular in the last few years.

People were offered a replacement for big clubs, the opportunity to relax with friends in close company, but with all the club surroundings, and even take a ride around the city. In total, a comprehensive interactive for any occasion: wedding, birthday, bachelorette party. And when we think about these buses, the most vivid images arise in our heads: celebration, fun, smiles and other pleasant things.

Let's summarize. How to choose your business niche:

1. Think creatively and start with yourself: what excites you, what would you like to improve in the world around you?
2. Next, look around, are there many people around who are facing the same problem?
3. Are they ready to pay?

Everyone who wants to open a company must look for a market, a niche. A niche in business is that small area that has the potential to generate income and, by mastering which, you can build a company. A niche can be large or small. Usually, when talking about niches, they mean a small sales market. But you should look for niches that have the potential to grow into a medium-sized business.

When developing niche ideas, you should pay attention to a whole range of factors. The success of a niche depends on these factors. The easiest way to measure whether a niche will be profitable is to see how many copies of a product (product, service) can be sold and at what price. There are niches where you cannot sell a lot of product, but the price of the product can be very high and thus the niche becomes attractive. Below we will look at 5 principles for choosing a niche.

1. See the market.
Seeing a potential market, a niche is a constant challenge for entrepreneurs who want to start a new business. For some, it does not matter what exactly to produce or sell - bicycles and board games or tractors. It is important for other people to love the product - what they sell. These are usually the majority. That is why you should choose a business niche not only on the principle that it is potentially profitable, but also because you like it.

Usually, professionals in some field have the skills necessary to create some things, do some work. These skills, in the future, can be used to open your own business. Professionals in some field have a number of advantages - they see niches in their professional field and are able to recognize those areas where improvement is needed. In addition, such people usually have all the necessary skills and resources to start a business, often without investment or. And even if considerable investments are required, they can immediately figure out who can become an investor.

If you are a professional in a certain field and you like doing your own thing, then you may want to consider finding a niche in the area where you are most competent. Today, most people start companies not for money, but rather to do things the way they like.

So, it is important to see the market. It’s even better to have several ideas in stock at once, and from the same area. One will not shoot - you can start trying another. Having in stock several ideas from one area at once, you insure the risks of an entrepreneur. For example, it will be much easier for you to make a successful business in the field of agriculture if you have worked in this area and you have about 5-7 ideas on what could be improved. In this case, success will be much closer to you - you have experience in this niche, you see what can be improved, you start doing a project and - even if you have difficulties with this first business - you can still start another company, only with a different idea, in the same niche.

Today, builders, pharmacists, seamstresses can start their own small companies, seeing what needs are in the area where they are employed. If everything is calculated correctly, the process is set up correctly, then you can seriously compete with those companies that are old-timers in the market.

2. Describe the target audience. Let's say you've identified a niche in your business. Now you are starting the most interesting stage - testing your idea for viability. The viability of an idea is tested only in practice, in other words, it cannot be said for sure that an idea will 100% succeed or fail. There are certain rules that help reduce risks, but you can be 100% sure that you have chosen the right niche only in practice.

That is why it is worth starting the production of prototypes or just selling the product as soon as possible - in order to understand whether it is worth pursuing the product further or whether you need to go in search of other ideas. But initially, it is important for us to understand who our target audience is - customers on whom we will test the business. Since we need customers to build a company, we should look for them. But in order to look for them, we need to understand who exactly to look for.

So, you need to be clear about who the person who will buy your product is. Describe the person's age, gender, income, preferences, the person's surroundings, where they go - you will get a picture drawn by your imagination and some facts on the basis of which you build guesses. Find 15-20 people who fit your profile. Then offer them your product. If the product “does not work”, you will be able to determine why: either no one needs your product at all, or you have incorrectly identified your target audience.

3. How much money is there in the niche? Repeat sales model. In case you correctly identified your target audience, you should calculate how much money is there in the niche? It may happen that the niche is very small, almost nothing can be earned on it. How much money are people willing to spend on your product? Will they come back for him again?

With food, cosmetics and all products in the FMCG category, it's easy - if the buyer likes it, he will come back again. Much more difficult with other products. Especially when it comes to innovation, products that are difficult to sell. In this case, maybe you should not get involved in creating a business in this area at all.

4. Deal cycles. The transaction cycle is the period of time that passes from the receipt of a client's application to the receipt of money in your account. The shorter the deal cycle, the better for the entrepreneur. If a person comes to the store, then the transaction cycle is several minutes - from taking the goods from the shelf (or on the website of the online store) to payment. If you are involved in specific building structures, then the transaction cycle will stretch for weeks or even months.

The margin may be large, but all the time while you are negotiating, preparing information for the client, you are forced to pay bills, salaries to employees, and so on. Do you have enough resources and endurance to build such a business? When in doubt, it is best not to take on projects where the transaction cycle is several weeks or even months.

5. What should be liked and disliked in business. We come to a very important point that matters for the project - will your business in the chosen niche be successful? Ultimately, success or failure largely depends on the individual's personal involvement in the project. In any business for which investors give money, it is important that the initiator has a strong interest in the project.

Without participation, without a great desire to build a company, nothing will happen, no matter how hard you try. Personal attitude is of the utmost importance. It all has to do, to a large extent, with what you like to do and what you don't. It is probably difficult for most people to compile accounting reports and submit documents to the tax office, fill the site with goods and do many other routine things.

Today it is not a problem to outsource everything that you do not like to do. But, it is important to understand what you like to do, and is it possible to build a company on the basis of this? The entrepreneur is required to participate in product development, marketing and sales. Are you ready for this? Will you experience the pleasure of selling the product?

Some say they don't care what kind of business they do or what they sell. We leave this approach to your discretion, but still the personality of an entrepreneur, love for your business, the product that you make, is often much more important than the willingness to do any business, as long as it is a business and that it generates income.

Usually an entrepreneur finds a niche in the area that excites him. A pregnant woman could not find inexpensive clothes of proper quality and design for herself and created her own maternity goods store. Someone faced problems with admitting children to kindergarten. Someone is annoyed by queues in supermarkets, and this leads to the idea of ​​​​alternative food stores.

A bicycle lover cannot quickly find a suitable model. Somebody's feet hurt from walking in heels all day long, and the idea of ​​comfortable dress shoes and so on is born. Usually the sphere of solving ordinary problems that millions of people face daily is what it is like to find the perfect business niche. Usually the greatest success is brought by those ideas that are not out of touch with life (). And those who built a company on the basis of an idea are usually people who themselves felt discomfort from some unresolved problems and wanted to solve them, first of all, for themselves.

Finding a niche to start a business is both simple and complex.

This may be related to your professional qualities and skills, as we described at the beginning. It may be something from the field of solving problems that you yourself face on a daily basis. In any case, stock up on a list of several ideas and start working on them from the very first idea. If the experiment doesn't work, you can move on to the next step until you finally find something that you're really interested in doing and that makes money.

Not everyone who starts a business understands how important choosing a niche for a business is at the stage of planning a business activity. In order not to make mistakes and choose the right path, learn to build a business consciously.

Literally, a niche is a recess in the wall. Globally is a zone of convenience. In the economy there is a free place where an entrepreneur can realize his idea.

The task of a novice businessman is to choose a niche, which will allow him to find a circle of clients and sell the product (service) he produces.

Niche requirements

1. Arouse interest among those who cannot find a service/product in the required volume on the market.
2. Demand, market demand.
3. Be free - target a specific target audience that has an unmet need for your product.

Interest, satisfaction of needs, demand - three criteria that guarantee the profitability of the business, and therefore the main goal, a niche for the business.

When a person thinks about starting his own business, he looks for ideas to implement, that is, he chooses a niche. He focuses on what surrounds him and connects his first business plans with current activities:

• trade in food and clothing;
• restaurant business, cafe;
• shoe repair or clothing tailoring services;
• pharmacy business, etc.

An enthusiast wants to cover everything at once, so that investments in the business are minimal and profits are high, but the further one dives into the economic intricacies of a certain business, the faster the activity gives way to confusion, a complete lack of understanding of what to do.

It’s easy to get your bearings and get started - follow the standard selection algorithm: narrow your search to the minimum (see this example):

1. Segment (confectionery).
2. Category (cakes).
3. Niche (wedding cakes).

The narrowing should be maximum - identify subcategories, subniches (engage in the production of multi-tiered wedding cakes or simply make sweet figurines of the bride and groom for decoration) - the more precisely the field of activity is chosen, the more efficiently the business develops.

In which area is it better to open a business?

For a person far from business, all areas of private entrepreneurship seem profitable and in demand.

And only the business sharks themselves remember how they started from scratch, how they looked for options and ideas, how they rejoiced at their first successes and the first funds they earned. In many ways, their professional growth was successful due to the correct understanding of what niche to choose for business: some were determined intuitively, others were based on experience and skills, and others approached the work of life responsibly.

Determine for yourself five areas of possible activity according to the niche selection algorithm. Check the idea for viability. At this stage you will have to work hard:

Market research

The demand for one or another type of product is determined by the constant need for it among a large number of the population. The consumer must want to spend money on purchasing a product, and the more money he is willing to pay for it (with a minimum investment), the higher the profit will be.

Look at the chosen service and direction from the buyer’s side - are you ready to spend money on this idea? Chat with your acquaintances, friends, relatives - make a list of their priority needs. Find out your opinion about the importance of your chosen method of earning money.

Demand and competition analysis

You can obtain statistical data on the demand for a product (service) via the Internet - enter the name in the search bar of any browser, and you will understand the approximate number of companies that are engaged in a similar business, and evaluate the possible circle of potential buyers. It is useful to get acquainted with analytical data on a certain type of business, which is published by many reputable economic and marketing publications.

Practice

Test your business idea on a test group. It can include family and friends; if you want an unbiased assessment, offer the product to a dozen random passers-by or inquire about possible cooperation with companies that, in your opinion, may become clients.

Don’t be discouraged if, after thoroughly developing your business idea, you have to look for other unoccupied small business segments. An in-depth analysis of your own creative potential will help with this - sometimes profitable ideas appear where you would not expect to see them.

How to determine which business niches are not occupied

By periodically studying statistics, it is possible to identify open niches in business in Russia and gain ideas for highly profitable business. Today, the following are considered promising small business vectors for Russians:

1. Scope of services: accounting, legal, repair.
2. to order.
3. Online courses, tutoring (English, vocals, dance, preparation for the Unified State Exam).
4. Online stores of gifts and souvenirs in hand made style.

Opening a business and expanding into new niches is never easy. In recent years, the desire to start a business among Russians has been increasingly waning. At the end of 2015, for example, only 2.2% of Russians seriously planned to start their own business. And in 2014, when the crisis had just begun, and existing businessmen began to actively sell off their businesses. According to Opora Rossii, 483.6 thousand companies have closed and only 417.5 thousand have opened.

And yet, a businessman is a diagnosis; accordingly, there will always be people who are truly “sick” with the matter. In 2016, interest in starting my own business resurfaced. The reason for this may be that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find decent pay in hiring.

Of course, opening a business from scratch or entering a new niche from an existing profile is a risky business that does not promise quick enrichment. Moreover, the number of niches for small and medium-sized businesses has recently been increasingly decreasing.

In December, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Elena Dybova diagnosed Russian small businesses - almost all business niches were occupied by corporations. In her opinion, the niches of services and trade are occupied; production requires money and resources that have become less available since the beginning of the 2014 crisis.

Boris Titov, the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights, says that it is still difficult for small businesses to get orders for government procurement, since, despite the fact, industry giants are trying to circumvent these norms. When everything starts working, small businesses should get a big piece of the social pie.

New business, old business – are there any unoccupied niches?

True, every cloud has a silver lining. A crisis is an opportunity to squeeze into the market with a solution to the problems that this crisis gives rise to. According to the authors of the portal for selling ready-made businesses “BiBoss”, new niches lie in the following areas:

Example. A company of young people, smart university graduates who were engaged in tutoring schoolchildren, united into a small company. The unique offer consisted, in essence, of the same tutoring - they prepared children for the Unified State Exam. But there was one difference - tutoring takes place not one on one with the student, but with a group of children. This suited the clients (parents), since the group size is still smaller than the class, and there are not 30 students per teacher, but 7-10. And the price turned out to be lower than individual training. The result of such group coaching is higher - the influence of the group has a positive effect.

Example. Let's take a company that specializes in the development and production of innovative vacuum switching equipment, intelligent devices for automating networks and substations, etc. 25 years ago she created equipment with a unique operating principle. Despite the presence of competitors, it is their devices that are purchased throughout Russia. And the company itself is represented not only in Russia, but also has 22 representative offices abroad.

Example. The Moscow hotel market is very saturated, but the hotel industry, according to professionals, has not worked out. The reason is that it is not always clear to hoteliers that the competitive battle is won not by good establishments, but by hospitable establishments. Company N is engaged in auditing, consulting and training in the hotel business. They chose to solve service problems in this area and do not rush into other industries. Previously, the owner of company N herself worked as a hotel manager, so she understands the pains of the industry.

Example. For many years, the Mari company, with varying success, developed two areas: goat breeding and the production of goat milk products. The breakthrough occurred for several reasons, the company’s co-owner reflects: the business received government subsidies, food niches were freed up, and a competent management step was made - hiring an experienced marketer who developed new packaging and positioning, which allowed Mari products to compete in the largest retail chains with foreign goods.

Example. Bots that respond to customer requests in Telegram and collect reviews are a good business assistant that saves on call centers. Company N was one of the first to decide to create such robots to order. The work is simple, but everything has its own nuances and often clients prefer not to do it themselves, but to outsource the creation of such a cunning “call center” to our heroes.

Business on maternity leave as a new support for SMEs

These tips apply to both those who are starting a business and those who are looking for new niches for their existing business. Looking for them is like reinventing the wheel. It seems that all bicycles have already been invented, but there are unique people who would like to buy a bicycle with square wheels or a tandem bicycle. We'll have to look for such unique people with their mini-problems, the solution of which will be greeted with applause!

For example, a federal company - a factory for the production of chocolate candies did not have a single chance to compete for high positions on the shelves in chain stores. Then they focused on the gift segment, and became the only confectioners who produce expensive gift chocolate. Part of the assortment is included in the network, the rest is sold via the Internet and its own retail, where people go to buy special gifts - personal and corporate. 75% of purchases are made by women.

The same niches remain even in declining industries such as publishing, for example. You won’t earn billions here, but it will definitely be enough for the founder and team to earn a good income.

New women's entrepreneurship is also called a separate trend. Mother-entrepreneurs are a new phenomenon in the Russian economy; they well understand their audience of clients related to children in one way or another, and experts believe that this niche has a great chance of development.

Franchising is also considered an undervalued business niche. , and companies that learn to scale their business wisely have a great chance of success.

Bottom line

1. There are almost no niches left for small businesses - the majority of positions in the market are occupied by corporations with enormous resources and a margin of safety. In addition, the mechanism for providing government contracts to small and medium-sized businesses is not working well yet. When starting a new start, it is important to analyze and understand what client needs are not being met by the corporation. And then there is every chance of success. There is no point in opening a grocery store next to Magnit. But opening a shop with fresh fish promises profit.
2. A crisis is a time for the emergence of new small niches related to the desire of both businesses and ordinary people to save money. This is where great opportunities lie for organizing a new business or launching new products.
3. Franchising is one of those niches that remains undervalued year after year. Interest in franchises is consistently high, but there are few truly good offers. Anyone who can offer a good franchise to the market will succeed.