A 34 year study conducted by the University of Chicago showed eighty six percent of the interviewees were happy with their jobs. Great, but what about the other fourteen percent?

Could it be they were unhappy because they hadn’t found their niche?

In order to know which niche would best suit you, define your interests. How do you do that? Take a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the center. Write something you enjoy doing. Let’s say you enjoy photography.

In the center of your circle, you’d write photography. Draw lines extending from the circle. On each line, write something you could do with that interest. Some of the topics might include wedding photographs, digital photography, or picture postcards.

When choosing a niche, you don’t have to be an expert. What you don’t know, you can learn. The Internet is a never ending reference tool right at your fingertips. In less than two seconds, I had a wealth of information on topics from building a guitar from scratch to becoming a fisherman simply by typing in the topic plus the word ”tutorial.”

One step you need to take in order to be successful is to stay current on the ins and outs of your niche. You can achieve this by joining related associations, forums or groups.

Because I used photography earlier as my example, I’ll stick with that. Photography doesn’t involve the same old products from our grandparents or even our parents’ generation. After decades of use, Polaroid announced it was going to cease making their instant  film.

The wave of the future is digital and in order to stay current, if you get involved with photography as a niche, you’ll need to understand the ins out outs of the digital world.

Another step is to give the customer something extra – something the guy selling the exact same service or product doesn’t give. Take dog grooming for example. Most people make an appointment, load the dog into their vehicle, fight traffic to the shop, drop off Fido and three hours later, he’s ready. The customer drives back to the shop, fighting traffic again and gets their pet.

However, a portable pet groomer will show up at the customer’s front door when he wants them to arrive, take Fido right outside into the van, wash, dry, clip, and curl. Then deliver him right back into the customer’s arms without the customer having to go through the  hassle of the first scenario. I remember when I first saw one driving around I thought, “Hey that’s a neat idea!” And I don’t even own a dog.

The portable pet groomer is going the extra mile.

Literally.

That’s what it takes to be a leader in any given niche. Make sure you’re giving the customer more than the competition.

Tiff

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