How to Succeed as a Small Business Owner

January 6, 2008

Hands down, the easiest way to succeed in small business is to offer a product or service people want and to have no competition. The first part is obvious - if you don’t have something people want, no one will pay you. The second part, though, can be tricky… how do you eliminate or at least reduce the number of competitors you have? You may be thinking, “I’m a dentist (or a lawyer or a financial planner)… there are thousands of people who do what I do. How can I have no competitors?

The answer is simple: think of a small, well-defined market niche within your field and specialize. Think of it… doesn’t a neurosurgeon make more than a general physician? And isn’t it easier for him to attract patients? It is far better to be the big fish in a small pond than to try to succeed as a small fish in a big pond with many competing fish (some of whom will have better credentials, be more established and have bigger advertising budgets). In the big pond, it is likely you’ll be eaten alive. In the small pond, however, you’ll not only survive, you’ll thrive.

Specializing is one of the best ways to truly set your business apart from the rest and it makes your marketing infinitely more effective.

If you’re a dentist, could you specialize in sedation dentistry, so your patients undergo treatments completely pain-free?

If you’re a lawyer, could you focus on helping injured people who were victims of drunk drivers?

If you’re a financial planner, could you specialize in offering planning services to recently divorced individuals?

Note that some of these specialties may not require any additional training… what’s important is how the potential client views you as being able to relate to her particular needs.

If I’m divorced and I need financial planning, you would be the one I’d choose, even if what you do is really not much different than any other financial planner.

Having a specialty business makes it much easier to define what your Unique Selling Proposition is and who your Market is. With a defined Message and Market, your use of Media becomes much more cost efficient, targeted and effective.

Specializing was the Key to Success in Our Small Business

My wife and I are both optometrists, but when it came time to start our own practice, we chose to go a different route than usual. Instead of opening your run-of-the-mill optical, we chose to specialize.

We decided to specialize in geriatric optometry and, to narrow our niche even further, we chose to provide our services only for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Once we made this decision, our marketing choices were easy.

We built our practice primarily through an attractive package promoting our services and the benefits they provided. We mailed this package to the administrators of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in our area.

We soon found ourselves swamped with requests for service because we had only one competitor - an eye doctor who visited a few nursing homes, but didn’t provide eyeglasses for the residents.

Because we did offer eyeglass services as well as comprehensive eye care, we became the provider of choice in our region.

The result: We’ve successfully been in practice for over ten years and have generated over two million dollars in sales.

Best of all, we never wasted any time or money advertising in places like the Yellow Pages. After all, we knew who our Market was, where they were and how best to reach them.

The same would hold true for your business. For the easiest way to succeed, consider promoting yourself as a specialist to eliminate, or reduce, your number of competitors.

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Filed Under Business Tips