When youre trying to choose the precise niche that your business will fill, the best strategy is to make sure that you know what youre doing with the product, so that youll feel much more comfortable in your niche and youll enjoy what youre doing. The best successes are always achieved by those who like their work. Therefore, the first step that you can take for defining your own niche is to make a list of all the things that you like to do best. This may have to do with your current job, a job you used to have, a hobby you enjoy, an art form, a sport, or anything else that you happen to enjoy in life.

Begin by writing down your areas of interest, and then look at each parts of that list separately so that you can break it down into more focused sections. To help to inspire you in building your list, think about the following questions and get your mind moving. Write down everything at first, not really thinking about whether or not it really has potential. The key to this step is simply to get the ideas flowing and see what you come up with, getting it all down on paper. You never know; the idea you write down right now might not seem like much, but when you read it over later, it might stir much bigger thoughts.

Would you like to be in this field every day as your job?

Do you already have any skills or knowledge in that category?

What type of person would be interested in the type of product that would come from that category?

Would you enjoy working with your niche market target?

Once youve come up with your primary list of interests, use the above questions to go over it and narrow it down to those that have the highest chances of bringing you success. Give yourself a bit of time to mull over those topics that remain, and choose one of them that appeals to you the most.

Use that topic and begin writing down all of the basic things that you would require to learn or obtain in order to achieve success within that category. Put all of these things into a logical order, and then break them down into smaller parts which are then arranged in their own logical orders.

Once youre done, you should have a much clearer idea of what youll be able to offer your prospective customers, and if you have the ability and motivation to work toward success in that specific category from your original list. To help determine if your successes are likely, go over your current list and ask yourself the following questions:

Do you have any special knowledge about this topic?

Do you have any skills that are related to this topic?

Are you able to come up with a product that would help or please people in some way within this topic?

Is there anything that you can offer in this topic that is outstanding and not already present in todays marketplace?

Make sure that youre always writing your ideas down. With all of the thinking and brainstorming youll be doing, youll be surprised how fleeting ideas are if you dont get them down on paper. Even if some of them look rather odd when you write them down, when you delve into them, they might have a lot more potential than you first thought.

Once you have some substantial ideas in front of you, consider showing them to your friends and family. Listen carefully to their thoughts and opinions and let them inspire you for further ideas and details. You might be surprised at what the people around you might think of that may never have crossed your mind.

Another great resource is the internet. Do some research around your topic and prospective product(s), finding websites of general interest and potential competition. This will give you some great ideas about whats out there and an understanding of what people are really looking for. It will help you to better polish your idea or develop a whole new one that you think is better.

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic