The Ideal Niche Market

Question For Richelle : Based on your success, can you discuss how a startup business owner/entrepreneur determine how to establish a niche?

Richelle’s Anser – What is an ideal Niche Market?  An ideal Niche market is a market that has these qualities:
1. Small enough for you to dominate – How will you reach the prospect? If you choose for example African American women. Well there are millions of them. How can you reach them through media? And if you have no money, you will not reach enough to make you any money
2. Big enough so that you can make money – Realize that you will only be able to penetrate and sell to about 20% of the market. If the market is only 1,000 – then that means you start with a capacity of 200 people that you can reach. YIKES – this is too small… An ideal niche market has at least 10,000 in it.
3. Is there available media to reach the prospect? Is there a magazine, television show, newspaper, a list to direct mail, radio, websites who are also selling to the prospect?
4. Does your niche have money to spend on your product or service?
5. Is your niche spending right now?

Run your business through this test to determine if you have a niche market.
Good luck !

Winning is more than an attitude!

Now, money is tight for the world, I get more and more questions about how did you keep going through adversity?

At first I used to seem baffled by this question. But lots of experience in failure, left me feeling like, this happens to everyone. So – lesson number one, as an entrepreneur, you will fail often. I have experienced way more failures in my life than successes but the one thing that never leaves my brain or heart is the reason for the failure.

As much as I probably should have looked at the failures as a reflection of me, I have never assumed that the failure was all me. I looked at what was going on in the world, and realized that there are always winners and losers. Even in this economy. During the most prosperous time in U.S. History, I was struggling to build my company. Yes, Struggling. So was it hard for me to focus on getting up again. Not really, how I view the economy – is actually directly tied to my bank account.

Right now, I am not experiencing the toughness of the economy. As a matter of fact, most of my personal mastermind group is not experiencing it either.

Who is experiencing it? Those that forgot to work on What Next in their businesses and have been coasting. Selling to “low hanging” fruit. Customers that come to them and never going deep into their list. Those making it focused on building relationships instead of building their second and third dream homes.
Winning is more than an attitude but it starts first with not worrying about the national economy, whether its good or bad. The focus is about your economy. It can change with YOU but only You.

Business vs. Hobby?

Richelle, What is the rule of thumb to determine if the service I want to offer is meeting a need that will make money, i.e business vs. hobby?

Richelle’s Answer:
Well I think the only question to ask is if is the hobby making money? If it makes money then, it is a business. There is no other test. BUT- I think the question you are asking is do I have a viable business?

First, I would focus on the first part of the Million Dollar Equation – which is what problem is your business solving?

Every successful business provides a solution for its customers. FedEx provides a way to get packages overnight. Dominoes Pizza provides a way to get fresh hot pizza within 30 minutes or less. My company, FreshStart Telephone provided a way for credit challenged customers to get phone service guaranteed without a deposit. My private client – Henderson OB/GYN provides women with a doctor who listens to their challenges and guarantees to spend at least 30 minutes per appointment.

As you can see – the solution is almost as important as whether there is a niche. I like to figure out who has the problem, first and then create the solution! Once you determine who has the problem, then, the next step is to run them through the Ideal Niche Market test

1. Small enough to make the big competitors say “never mind”
2. Big enough to make some money
3. Is there available media
4. Do they spend money?
5. Are they spending money right now?

Good luck to you! I wish you nothing but success!
Let me know what you think!

ESP

Wouldn’t it be great if we had ESP and were able to know when our customers wanted to buy from us again?

Well, our program works similar to ESP.  ESP = Retention Marketing exemplified in our program, Keeping Customers for Life.

Here is how it works…

Is this economy harder than you thought?

Imagine if all of your customers that ever did business with you were still doing business with you. Would your business look differently?

Keeping customers takes time but also if you are doing so in an organize fashion, you end up making your Retention Marketing – “Hit & Miss.

Hit & Miss ends up looking like a desperate attempt to get money, instead of a great attempt to build a relationship.

You know that the easiest person to sell is one where you have a relationship.  Well, it also is based on believing that you will be there in the long haul.  That you are trust worthy and that you are providing information that I need.

Not only does Retention Marketing work in any kind of economy, but it helps explode your referrals and reactivation of old customers.   Your second easiest customer to sell – a referred one.   They are least price resistant and you are normally a shoe-in as long as you don’t screw up the process.

Trade Show Secrets

Easiest marketing tool I know? Well, easy is a relative term, but this last week I attended 2 Expos that are in line with my target market. It worked great. A stream of interested prospects came up and asked for information. PERFECT scenario right?

Actually – it is a perfect scenario! Here’s my basic tips on using an EXPO to generate business

1. Pick an expo that is specific to your industry
2. Get a booth – don’t just go and hand out your information to the people who have booths – YIKES! That is so tacky and by the way, those that did that last week, I immediately threw their information in the garbage can so total wasted effort.
3. Make sure that your booth has information to give to prospects! Some booths had outdated brochures, non-existant information. Waste of money!
4. Create your follow up strategy before you attend the expo – you will not have time after the expo to create custom messages to everyone who came to your booth. So, if you create your follow up before the expo, you will appear efficient and be in better position to get the sale.
5. Make sure that you contact them more than once after the expo. After an expo, many folks are barbomarded with lots of promotional stuff and will be overwhelmed. If they did not buy in the initial contact, keep them on your newsletter list!

Of course, we can go on and on, but start with these basic techniques and you will generate lots of new business!

My favorite Trade Show Booth company – The Design Factory http://www.designfactorylv.com. You can rent the booth for a substantial discount from buying the booth, plus just pay for graphics. Great company with cost effective products.

Good Luck!

Tip #1: How Winners Win!

Richelle’s Million Dollar Business Building Weekly Tips

Hey Richelle :

I just found out that most people are not winners. Actually, when you talk about the 80/20 rule – where 20% of the people do 80% of the work, I have found that is 98/2!

Becoming a winner takes some effort but most people quit too soon. And for entrepreneurs the RULE is exemplified. Remember how you deal with failure, will determine if you ever get to experience success! So what are you doing to have both a winning attitude and win during this economy?

Last week – I wrote about a simple forgotten marketing tool – trade shows/expos and I received several responses and comments about making them work for you.

This is what I learned in addition to last week’s tips.

To stand out from the crowd – have a professional booth made. If you are low on cash, my favorite company to rent a booth from is The Design Factory . A simple cheap strategy so that you can compete with the big boys at trade shows. The Design Factory even has “green” booths so if your competitive advantage is being “GREEN” or Sustainable energy, renting this booth is a no brainer. The Design Factory takes your graphics and places them on the booth. If you are coming to Las Vegas – the trade show capital of the world, they will even set up and take down for you! What a great service! Here are Cindy Throm, Lena Walther and ME at the Expo last weekend.

Love these 2 powerful women! Plus the owner of The Design Factory – Chris Harvey is another fabulous – kick butt business owner.

Oh yeah, and my friend Susie Nelson is the Master at making trade shows and expos work for you especially if you are a small business or in Direct Sales! Check out her information by clicking here.

Enjoy this week’s article – Forgotten Simple Marketing Tool

Richelle

Where’s Richelle?

03-01-10 Coalition of 100 Black Women
03-10-10 InfusionCon – Scottsdale, AZ
03-17-10 Mastermind (more info go to www.NevadaMarketingCenter.com)
03-24-10 The Implementation Team (more info go to www.NevadaMarketingCenter.com)
03-25-10 GKIC Las Vegas – Chapter Meeting
03-27-10 Non-Traditional Entrepreneur Honoring ME! – AKA Emerald Ball
04-03-10 Las Vegas Black Business Expo – www.LVBlackBusinessExpo.com
[Workshop – How to Build A Business With No Money]

Richelle Answers Questions

Greetings Ms. Shaw,

Here are my two questions:

1. After you have set your legal structure, how do you know when to split up your business into other businesses? Example, car wash service starts selling their car cleaning products to their customers, they do so well, the company places it online. The products start to have their own momentum. Should you set up each possible facet of your business in the beginning or what determines the breakout point?

2. If you live in one state, and it is more feasible to conduct your business in another state, what do you recommend as the Ultimate Relocation checklist to determine what state to move to?

If you are looking for participants in your Beta testing of this new product, please consider me as a viable candidate.

Love, love, love your brand!

Great success to you.

Greer Jacob-Holmes

Inspiring the Dream Network

252.771.6595

Hello Greer: Thanks so much for submitting your questions and for the endorsement of my brand. And I will keep you on the list for the new product!

Answer to Q#1 – When to split up your business? I actually hear this alot from entrepreneurs. And I got back to the first rule of business – to make money. The second rule of business, make more money. PERIOD. So what I coach my clients to do is make the money first. Don’t spin your wheels with what if scenarios but you end up in analysis paralysis. Kinda like when I decided to drop some weight – AKA chubby girl 😉 I would run around and think of all the things that could go wrong. I would buy lots of “fat free” groceries, exercise equipment, a new DVD player because I did not like to exercise in the room with the old DVD player… you see when I give the example with weight, you are probably saying WHAT??? Why not just go out and walk around the block a few times! And that is what you need to do with the business. Just start. You can fix structure later. Right now all of the different entities is costing you important marketing dollars that you will need to test your idea.

When should you separate them out?? When the liability is too much and you want to preserve one entity. For example, if you notice that the insurance for the cleaning products’ onlines sales are so much because you need to use the same policy to cover damage to cars… you might consider separating them out. Also if you are bidding on projects and it is hurting you to have the other business and you need to separate the SIC codes. BUT for right now- I just say LEAP OFF THE ROOF and see what happens!

Answer to Q#2 – I would never recommend doing business in a state other than the one you live in. Even if they are close. You need to be in the state that you are doing business. Now as far as the Ultimate Relocation Package…I look for tax laws. Nevada, Texas and Florida are winners because of no state tax! Second, look to see that your target market is located in the state where you are moving. And the rest, well, it is hit and miss. Don’t be afraid to fail because, failures are valuable learning lessons.

Good Luck!

Richelle

p.s. I am in the final stages of my new product – The Million Dollar Equation and if you could do me a favor and let me know of anything you want to make sure it includes – reply to this message (really, hit the reply button now and give me your 2 questions!)

Leave a comment and tell me if the article helped you! If you have any questions, I want to answer them!

The Ideal Niche Market

Question From Grace Major:
Richelle : Based on your success, can you discuss how a startup business owner/entrepreneur determine how to establish a niche?

Grace – What is an ideal Niche Market?
An ideal Niche market is a market that has these qualities:
1. Small enough for you to dominate – How will you reach the prospect? If you choose for example African American women. Well there are millions of them. How can you reach them through media? And if you have no money, you will not reach enough to make you any money
2. Big enough so that you can make money – Realize that you will only be able to penetrate and sell to about 20% of the market. If the market is only 1,000 – then that means you start with a capacity of 200 people that you can reach. YIKES – this is too small… An ideal niche market has at least 10,000 in it.
3. Is there available media to reach the prospect? Is there a magazine, television show, newspaper, a list to direct mail, radio, websites who are also selling to the prospect?
4. Does your niche have money to spend on your product or service?
5. Is your niche spending right now?

Run your business through this test to determine if you have a niche market.
Good luck !

Business vs. Hobby?

Second question from Grace: Richelle, What is the rule of thumb to determine if the service I want to offer is meeting a need that will make money, i.e business vs. hobby?

Grace:
Well I think the only question to ask is if is the hobby making money? If it makes money then, it is a business. There is no other test. BUT- I think the question you are asking is do I have a viable business?

First, I would focus on the first part of the Million Dollar Equation – which is what problem is your business solving?

Every successful business provides a solution for its customers. FedEx provides a way to get packages overnight. Dominoes Pizza provides a way to get fresh hot pizza within 30 minutes or less. My company, FreshStart Telephone provided a way for credit challenged customers to get phone service guaranteed without a deposit. My private client – Henderson OB/GYN provides women with a doctor who listens to their challenges and guarantees to spend at least 30 minutes per appointment.

As you can see – the solution is almost as important as whether there is a niche. I like to figure out who has the problem, first and then create the solution! Once you determine who has the problem, then, the next step is to run them through the Ideal Niche Market test – (to read the blog post click here)
1. Small enough to make the big competitors say “never mind”
2. Big enough to make some money
3. Is there available media
4. Do they spend money?
5. Are they spending money right now?

Good luck to you! I wish you nothing but success!
Let me know what you think!

Winning is more than an attitude!

Winning is more than an attitude

Now, money is tight for the world, I get more and more questions about how did you keep going through adversity?

At first I used to seem baffled by this question. But lots of experience in failure, left me feeling like, this happens to everyone. So – lesson number one, as an entrepreneur, you will fail often. I have experienced way more failures in my life than successes but the one thing that never leaves my brain or heart is the reason for the failure.

As much as I probably should have looked at the failures as a reflection of me, I have never assumed that the failure was all me. I looked at what was going on in the world, and realized that there are always winners and losers. Even in this economy. During the most prosperous time in U.S. History, I was struggling to build my company. Yes, Struggling. So was it hard for me to focus on getting up again. Not really, how I view the economy – is actually directly tied to my bank account.

Right now, I am not experiencing the toughness of the economy. As a matter of fact, most of my personal mastermind group is not experiencing it either.

Who is experiencing it? Those that forgot to work on What Next in their businesses and have been coasting. Selling to “low hanging” fruit. Customers that come to them and never going deep into their list. Those making it focused on building relationships instead of building their second and third dream homes.
Winning is more than an attitude but it starts first with not worrying about the national economy, whether its good or bad. The focus is about your economy. It can change with YOU but only You.

Build a Million Dollar Business

Announcing The New Million Dollar Equation that guarantees to help you build a million dollar business in 3 years or less, even if your business is currently struggling.

This program shows you how a little Black girl was able to build several multi-million dollar businesses and help other women of color build million dollar businesses without any investors, advanced college degree or loans.

If you want to build a million dollar business, then this will be the most important letter you ever read.

GRAB FREE BOOK NOW

Click here to grab the Free Book now.