Читать книгу Entrepreneurial Itch - David Trahair - Страница 30

One of the main advantages of developing a niche for your business is that word-of-mouth naturally occurs if what you do is specific and unique, and that is what people are more apt to remember. Because you have defined exactly what products or services you offer, it’s more likely that you will come to mind when these people happen to talk to other people who could use what you offer. That may be reason enough to establish your own specialty, but there are other advantages:

• The learning curve is faster. It takes you less time to investigate issues relating to new clients because you will already be familiar with many of the problems that they may have. If you take the time to document policies and procedures for dealing with clients in a manual, new employees can refer to it instead of having you continually investigating and explaining things to them. This could save you and your employees significant amounts of time.

• You decide what type of work you do. Because you have spelled out your niche, you will attract work of your choosing rather than simply accepting what comes your way. Take my case, for example. I have been an accountant for over 20 years and have wrestled with the issue of identifying my niche for much of that time. Accountants do many things, but I have found that people often assume we are all tax specialists interested in doing personal tax returns. Over the years I have tried to dispel this notion because it is not an area I want to be involved with.

• It is easier to keep current. Trying to keep up to date on many different types of businesses at once is time-consuming. If you specialize in one area, it is much easier to keep current.