What Everyone Should Know about a Business Niche

In my humble estimation, a business niche is the fastest way of positioning a business to enjoy an outstanding visibility and identity in the customers’ eyes. It is the tangible mark of originality in thought and functions in the marketplace. I write this article to intensify your reflection on what everyone should know about a business niche.
With each passing day, more and more new entrepreneurs and companies dealing in the similar products and services as the existing companies spring up. Competition stiffens even more and customers are spoilt for choice as to which companies deserve their vote for business loyalty. This business environment has created a massive advantage for some entrepreneurs and a perceived disadvantage to the rest of the businesses.

Almost every business that has built and sustained a reasonable niche has found itself clearly visible – standing above the crowd. Without a niche, you and your business will be suffocated and swallowed up in the crowd while a clear niche with help you stand out the way a uniform separates a student from the crowd. And believe me, ‘getting suffocated and swallowed up’ is not a good thing for anyone. We all work hard to shine through. Refusing to give a visible identity to your work is self sabotage. A niche is like your business signature. Most people know how to use signitures, watermarks, seals and other tools to mark their identity on finished work yet a good number of people fail to answer the key question: How do I want to be identified from all the rest that are in my line of work or competition?

A niche is the cloud of uniqueness that an individual or a company chooses to sail under. Your niche is your identity; it is your way of demonstrating to the market that you are not only different but relevant, that you provide a new dimension of solution to their problem. If you ever realize that your business is perceived as any other in the market then evaluates your niche.

As an emblem is to a nation so is your niche to your company. It says a lot about your business. It says that you are not just like everyone else, you are different; that you are not a mere participant but a formidable competitor in providing your customers with the best offer or solution. That you don’t claim to know or do bits of everything but that you have mastered a particular thing better than anyone else. Nothing provides an instant presence of a business in the market place as a niche… and the reverse is true. Businesses that choose to sail under gray identities soon lose visibility and customer favor.
There are several aspects about your business that if mastered and delivered with exceptional dedication would immediately grant you a favorable customer perception of your business. These could include price, packaging, personality, speed, accessibility, clarity, integrity, quality, simplicity and others alike plus other aspects that make doing business with you easier and better.

When you create and sustain your niche over a reasonable period of time, it will gravitate into a brand. Your business name will soon be synonymous with your niche in the market place. Think about different business names and particular mental associations will spring to mind … positive or negative. If your niche is compelling enough, your brand alone will be worth millions of dollars. However, it all starts with carefully and clearly building a worthy niche.

Having briefly shared my opinion above on what I think everyone should know about a business niche, I am interested in learning what your opinion is.

 

The Best Reason You Should Treat Your Employees Well

A simple observation of the employees’ behavior says a lot about how they are treated by their bosses. If the employee is sad faced, indifferent to the fate of the customer or demonstrating volcanic tendencies; that says enough without having to check out the back staff. In whatever you choose to do in business, it is critical that you constantly focus on the best reason why you should treat your employees well.

Remember that your employees are the actual soul of the business. The biggest challenge I have constantly come across in developing best customer service practices in most companies is when the employees are grossly demotivated by the mean conduct of their immediate supervisors or negative attitude of their bosses. Unhappy employees are a major risk to your business credibility.

The truth is that your workers will treat your customer the same way they are treated.

The service team usually poses questions like:

1. Why should we care more about this business when the owner or manager doesn’t show that they care as much?

2. Why should we be nice to customers when our bosses are rude to us?

3. When we are treated as outsiders to the business, what should motivate us to act like insiders?

4. How can we act confidently and enthusiastically when we are constantly subjected to intense intimidation from our bosses?

It is about time you learn to thank your service team and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with courtesy and I bet that they will have a higher regard for customers.

Appreciation flows from the top just like family values are built from parents to children. Treating your employees well is as important as it is to treat your customers well. Employees draw their inspiration or demotivation from management. Do you greet your employees enthusiastically each day [with the john Wanamaker trade mark hearty ‘good morning’]; are you polite in your dealings with them; do you try to accommodate their requests; do you listen to them when they speak?

Consistent rude customer service is a reflection not as much on the employee as it is on management. Employees can be unpleasant. If they get pushed around and treated wrongly, they can choose to spend more time trying to “get even” than trying to get results. They can deliberately do things to drive your customers away; unhappy employees will drive away more business than the business owners brings in through advertising.

Every employee should be inspired to protect and preserve the customer’s trust and loyalty.

Should you ever forget the best reason why you should treat your employees well, at least strive to remember this;

treating employees well is the golden hammer; it will open any door.

 

The Top Disaster to Business Credibility

Nothing undermines a relationship faster than broken promises. It is a mark of a weakness in character for a person or a business to find convenience in making empty assurances to earn vain gratitude rather than make genuine efforts to help the situation. It is betrayal incarnate. Broken promises are the top disaster to business credibility. Must I mention that they are VERY common in most business interactions?

Promises, in most cases, are made to demonstrate a high level of courtesy and care to a customer. However, the real thing that a promise increases is the degree of the customer’s expectation. The more the promises made, the higher the anticipation created.

Of course you may well say that most promises are broken due to factors beyond your control. But I have a question for you; do you think that your customers think the same way – as you do? Do you think in their dissatisfaction and frustration they are thinking about your good reasons why you under delivered? May be not.

Promises increase the weight of responsibility upon the one who makes them.

Whatever business you are running and whatever role you play in your business development, tension arises when expectations are not met in the eyes of the customers. This subtracts value from you in your customers’ eyes; slows the speed of your business development and puts a dent in your business image.

Indeed in most cases, it is after cases of broken promises that you will receive customer feedback like, “They are good people but they are not reliable.”, “So and so can ably do that but don’t place much hope in them.” Once customers develop a belief that they cannot rely on you, you have lost their trust.

It is always far better to “under promise and over deliver”. This will pay off greatly.

Promises serve as a score card to rate a business’ credibility or reliability. If you promise, “Your new furniture will be delivered this Thursday”, make sure it is delivered on Thursday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines and other dealings. There are many ways in which business promises can be broken but that will be a topic for another day.

Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys or creates irate customers for your business more than a broken promise. Whatever the good intentions, don’t pledge from the excitement of the moment and forget the position that your promise places you and your business image in.

The greatest of people and businesses are measured by how far they go in delivering their promise – however big or small. They can be measured by their promise; they can be taken at their word.

Their word still carries the sacred devotion only reserved for legal commitments. To them, heaven means honoring their agreement. Do not guarantee what you cannot deliver.