Starting A Niche Business: A Guide

More and more people are turning their hobbies into business propositions.

14:25 10 December 2018

Taking the step from passion to profit can be a tricky one. If you invest so much of your heart, soul and bank savings into a new company venture, you want it to work out.

Setting yourself up for success requires hard work and dedication, but there’s also a formula you can follow when you’re starting a niche business. From conceiving your unique selling point to finding the right suppliers and establishing a price strategy, here’s what you’ll need to know.

What’s your unique selling point?

Whatever you choose to call it, your USP, unique brand position or company reason-to-be, the most influential businesses have a clear idea of why they do what they do, and why consumers would want to buy from them.

Fail to communicate this appropriately to prospective buyers, and you may struggle to get off the ground. You can witness masterclasses in USP communication from brands such as Innocent Drinks, Hendricks Gin and Nike. These brands all share the common knowledge of their product‘s unique reason-to-be. Of course, in your niche business, you may need to do some work to get customers on board. If so, you can use a USP formula to find your initial springboard for launch.

Get your kit together

Once you know that you’ve got a winning idea, and a strong, unique selling point to launch into the market, it’s time to invest in the right kit you’ll need for your workplace.

Every business needs slightly different equipment, and as you’re just starting out, the most important thing for you is to be cost-savvy when it comes to your set up. Especially if you’ve got investors or financial backers, they’ll want to make sure you’ve been astute in your initial costs.

Think ahead to your direct costs, any fees you’ll incur in order to make a sale, and how you’ll encounter these. As an example, if you’re launching a beauty product range, your direct costs will cover ingredients and packaging. Both of which you’ll want to get at a low price, while still ensuring your product and branding are top quality. It’s all about balance.

For a food business, such as mobile catering or a food truck, a walk-through of a day’s trading will be invaluable to make sure you’ve considered every small step which may incur a cost. By doing so, you may decide that an LPG generator is a worthwhile investment, as it’ll save you money in the long run versus petrol fuelling, for example. Don’t be afraid to do some market research and ask for advice from others, too.

It’s launch day!

You’ve done your research, and everything is in place. All that’s left to do is launch your niche business into the world.

At this early stage of your journey, promotion will be key! Expenses you invest in marketing and getting your name out there will be money well-spent. Don’t worry if it takes shoppers some time to pick up on your business. Niches often are slow burners. If you keep working hard, it will pay off!