Everyone knows a window guy or door guy or concrete guy. Here is a way to cut competition, keep your prices high and become the defacto “go to” guy in your market for whatever niche you want to target.
In this environment, you have to put as much distance between you and the rest of the pack as you possibly can. In other words, you have to carve out a market or niche for your business. By creating this distance, you protect yourself from competition but also from quick dips in the market.
So what do you want to do?
Finding what you want to specialize in is a matter of spin-doctoring what you are already doing. Some of it is marketing; “The area’s only woman tree-trimmer“, and some of it is your willingness to say no to other types of work. That doesn’t mean you have to turn down job after job, just so long as you are doing more jobs in your niche than any others should get you the lift you need to get started.
Perception can kill or cure
The point is to create a perception over time that the market you serve can’t live without you. Again, this doesn’t happen overnight, but if you ever want to get there, you have to start somewhere.
Can’t figure out what you want to be when you grow up?
If you are having a tough time deciding on a niche, turn to your customers. Go back and look at what type of work you did the most over the last year, three years or five years. This helps you by making sure what you are thinking about specializing in has a good enough market work from.
Then rinse and repeat
Continue to add-on and build up by adding new products or services to your business mix while continually positioning your company as the only company doing what you do…the way you are doing it.