How did you come up with your business idea?

specialyear · Jan 6, 2009

Hi all,

I've been lurking for a while and am amazed to see lots of people with its own niche. How did you all come up with it?

For the past 3 months, I've been reading books, ebooks, blogs and forums and etc... Everyone is talking a niche... and the best one should be around one's hobby/interest. I still haven't found one

I've taken a serious interest in affiliate marketing and, in the end, got stuck on choosing a niche.

My background is in accounting. By the time I successfully finished the exam ACCA (to be a certified accountant), I realised accounting wasn't for me any more although I used to work as financial controller for about 5 years.

Whilst reading around affiliate marketing, I tried 'buy and sell' on ebay. Started selling my own stuff, then been to car boots to buy and sell on ebay, then bought 'wholesale job lot' from ebay to resell on ebay. Although I enjoyed its process, I soon realised there wouldn't be any money to be made in this way. On the other hand, my high volume/low margin sales earned me over 100 feedback within the very short space of time -100% positive feedback. Quite a few buyers commented that I was the best seller they have ever dealt with! Although money wasn't made, I am very happy with the result.
I have a great customer care attitude and would love to make people happy with my product or/and service.

My hobby would be reading biography / self help books. I've always wanted to have my own business.

I had one big dream but it is exactly just that for now as I don't have any money even to try it.

And it requires lots of money, well over £500,000.00.

So I am looking for something else to get into quickly and grow steadily with initial investment of a few thousand pounds. ebay seems a great place to start but again I got stuck on a niche - what to sell? / how to find it? I've spent loads of time browsing on ebay.

I would love to sell authentic designer brand as I love them myself and believe there is always enough demand for it - of course, I may be wrong on this. Even then, it seems not everyone can get their hands on designer wholesale.

Once I find a product, I know I will give my 110% to make a successful business. But to my dismay, I am again back to square one after 3 months reading and trial and error.....

Anyone can share their expertise picking on their niche or direct me to more relevant materials to read around? Any advice is much appreciated!!

Thank you!

Lee

Steve2507 · Jan 6, 2009

My first (and still main) business was by accident.

I used to be a bank manager and had a breakdown (nearly killed me). I retrained into IT programming and decided to build a website to showcase my skills. Thought I would build a lingerie site as I could get the products easily and it sort of snowballed from there. We started at the right time so we could add extra items as customers requested them and as competition was very low we didn't need to do much research.

The second business (www.glutafree.co.uk) was started from personal experience. I'm a ceoliac and so it is something I know a hell of a lot about.

The next business (due for launch later this year) is based on my experience in another field and is another hole in the market I think I have found. I only think at the moment as I'm still doing my research.

I think you are trying to force the issue of going into business yourself and you could be trying too hard to find that perfect product. Browsing on Ebay won't do you much good (imo), instead get out of the house and visit trade fairs, the Spring Fair at the NEC is the next decent one which has a good mix in it.

My way of thinking is to just go for something you fancy. As long as you can make enough to live on then it will give you valuable experience. As you work on the main venture other opportunities will naturally appear.

Also don't worry too much about margins at this stage. Our Glutafree site has a much lower profit margin than the adult site (seriously lower) but we have a much higher conversion rate and are already seeing faster repeat business. So even though a product or product area you fancy has a lower margin you should think about repeat business and conversions.

Sorry for rambling, but in essence I think you have got the right attitude but you are doing too much research.

tony84 · Jan 6, 2009

i have had websites in any and every field you can think of - Music, Sports, Health, Finance, Entertainment, Clothing etc etc.

Every time i thought of something i could do, i always tried to think of something that would make it unique. For instance i had a fitness site, if people registered (for free) they had access to tools which would check BMI etc and save the information so they could view their stats of the last 3 months (It helps with motivation).
I had a gaming site where i offered free forum hosting to "clans".
And so on.

Looking at your post you have a lot of things that you are thinking:
Biographies/self help
ebay
clothing
Finance
plus whatever else.

In all honesty ebay finance and clothing are hard "niches" to break into. Maybe cut it down further - what type of finance?
A way i tend to look for ideas is look at websites for sale, see if it is well priced and if there is anything i think i can do that will improve the value - bring those changes in nd leave it 3 months, see if income has gone up and if not sell with those changes which have hopefully added value, this will then finance another project.

This probably ist the best way as im not rich yet, but it certainly adds an extra chunk to my bank balance twice a year.

movietub · Jan 6, 2009

This is a difficult subject.

To use myself as an example I find it almost impossible not to get excited about business in general. I cannot even go out for a drink in a bar without looking round and figuring out what could be done better. I'm not exagerating when I say my business thoughts keep me awake at night!

And more than that everyday life inspires me to do new things. As a result I have setup many small projects. Some of which have grown, others I dropped, others almost destroyed me.

You asked how people come up with ideas - well I think its by being the way I describe above. A blessing and a curse (I really cannot sleep some nights).

You mentioned an interest in self help/reading/biographies. The self help bit is a niche enough area surely? You could start a niche online bookshop combined with a forum dedicated to the subject and peoples experiences. You could review the books yourself. Writing a solid review will increase sales and also great SEO for the site overall. Having the forum creates fantastic cross pollenation between the forum community and the online sales.

Of course this is just a suggestion for you to develop further. But even as first stab the above solution would involve you reading the books you like, talking on and managing a forum discussing said books, ultimatlely making money too. As you are passionate you will eventually outperform most others in your niche as you will naturally strive to take it further.

And the fact you qualified as an accountant then turned your back is great news. I can't live without my accountant but like most accountants/bank managers I have spoken to their passion for numbers, Black & White and security of decision makes them totally unsuitable for the diverse and imaginitve world of business. So I'm glad it wasn't for you

stewartsetter · Jan 7, 2009

I used to work of a large Pharmaceutical company managing the day to day. The bosses then decided to move the HQ to Jersey, any guesses why?.

As such, I then re-setup the UK Finance department to run as a back office for Jersey, partly because only a MD was there and he could just about lift a pen let alone run day to day. We then used to cross charge the Jersey office a set fee for the overheads etc for work done on their behalf.

This is when I thought that I could offer back office to other companies. Since launch in November 2006, I have picked up quite a few niche businesses that could not yet survive if they had admin staff to pay for.

I am a sucker for day to day business, business administration is my "morning coffee", it's the only thing that gets me out of bed.

I also agree with movietub above. This also keeps me awake at night.

Steve2507 · Jan 7, 2009

I think the above could be classed as spam?

Humphrey · Jan 7, 2009

Hi Lee

After many years of chasing my fortune on the internet I decided to take a close look at what was actually earning me money. Amazingly it was providing free information.

I looked at the types of people who were visiting my web sites.

The biggest group of people browsing the web have absolutely no intention of spending money. However, they are tempted into looking at interesting web sites. So one of my first significant sources of income was Google Adsense. A small but significant income.

The next group of people on the web are going to purchase something but are determined to get the best price. My 'niche' area is personal development, health and well-being, so my first need was to ensure I get found. This is tough when going up against the big organisations with big budgets but not impossible. My web site sleepwise.co.uk is most successful. Once the potential customer has found one of my web sites I try and supply a solution rather than simply sell my services. Of course I am looking for a sale and my services and products are tied into the solution, plus I am involved in many affiliate programs which also provide a small but significant income.

The next group of potential customers are those looking to change their lives. This is the most profitable group as far as my on-line sales are concerned but do require me to be more creative and diverse in the information I provide. There are many people looking for ways to earn a living from the internet. I try an provide some practical solutions, most of which earn me a small commission and generate a regular income. The best of these is my enterprisemall.com web site, which amazingly is a free on-line business but generates income from shared team commission. Many people access this web site via other 'free information' sites such as my 5050vision.co.uk web site that targets the over 50s.

My solution to earning a living from the internet has been diversification and a somewhat eclectic approach that can be difficult to maintain. Not the perfect solution but it works for me.

Humphrey

specialyear · Jan 7, 2009

Thank you all!

It certainly helps me think outside my comfort zone!

Thank you Steve. I've been told to get out of the house a lot recently

Trade fairs is a great idea. I've googled it and sent a few registration emails. I was hung up for designer brand stuff for a while (and searching for its source with not much success) so didn't really look for 'new products' but now I think there may be something I fancy so I will give it a go.

Yes, Tony. I find ebay is a tough place to begin with. Valuable experience though. I often wonder how power sellers make money at all. I think it's down to their 'exclusive' wholesale source which is hard to find. Funnily enough, I can only get excited about my own finance

Other than that, it's all a headache. Having said that, I do like help people budgeting and planning. It's not more than common sense though so I can't see any way that I can stretch this to a forum level. I googled website for sales and thought it's interesting. Especially those with on line shops which is linked with the source of drop shipping. My negative thinking is that, if anyone is trying to sell it when it sounds like a real good proposition, there's gotta be a catch. Am I being too negative? What you are achieving seems to require a fair bit of technical skills in IT. What's the maximum you pay for the type of website you work on improving? Just to get some idea of an acceptable price level...

Movietub, there was a time I thought self help book was a great niche. Then my subsequent research put me right off. Simply oversaturated. Then again, so many things I looked up over the past 3 months seem so. This leaves me thinking, 'I will never start anything'. Like Steve said, I've been spending rather too much time on research. But then again, I didn't want to start anything I knew it's overly crowded and would bring nothing but a waste of time and effort in the end. I guess it's another 'trial and error' time I should take. I will give it a go. Your suggestion is actually what I am passionate about at least. Moreover, I can actually see myself outperforming some in that area!

It's great, Stewart. You quickly spotted your niche, dived in and built it around your strengths. What mostly keeps me awake at night is 'What can I offer?' 'How can I connect people's needs to a product/service?' 'What are their needs?' 'How can I find their needs?' 'Everything seems out there already. With what and how can I stand out?' 3 months of these questions day and night to dead end...

Humphrey, how do you manage all those websites?! They all look really nice and informative. Thanks for the detailed sharing. I think I get the picture of 'where to start?' thanks to your 'many years' chasing and the result!

I now will get out, meet people and source some products. I entirely relied on internet until now, the information of which is often overwhelming and not entirely fruitful. Then again, some people found its product and source that way!

I know I have second to none customer care skills/customer satisfaction oriented attitude/integrity. Hope I can find a right product soon to open an on line shop and work around my strengths.

While I am looking for a product and its source, I will work on self help related blog too. Others' participation will certainly boost my moral along the way!

Thank you again. Will let you know my progress. In the meantime, any more advice is very much appreciated!!

movietub · Jan 7, 2009

specialyear said:
Movietub, there was a time I thought self help book was a great niche. Then my subsequent research put me right off. Simply oversaturated. Then again, so many things I looked up over the past 3 months seem so. This leaves me thinking, 'I will never start anything'. Like Steve said, I've been spending rather too much time on research. But then again, I didn't want to start anything I knew it's overly crowded and would bring nothing but a waste of time and effort in the end. I guess it's another 'trial and error' time I should take. I will give it a go. Your suggestion is actually what I am passionate about at least. Moreover, I can actually see myself outperforming some in that area!

Never underestimate passion as a route to success. Even if the market place is saturated with people peddling the same things there is no reason you cannot outperform the majority. Finding really niche products is all well and good but guess what? You then have to track down niche customers!

I was imagining that most people searching for a self help book would be a little confused at the sheer number covering each subject. For those people at least a site containing solid reviews of each book along with side by side comparisons of similar books on the same subject AND a forum stimulated by your own enthusiasm and knowledge to allow people to share opinions of the books could add upto to one hell of a community.

Think of channeling your passion and enthusiasm to build an online community of a few thousand people, around 5% logging on each due to the forum. In effect getting to that stage can cost very little and provides prime online 'real estate' for the sale of books. I sell fishkeeping gear and get around 750 unique visitors a day and I'm not even that passionate about fishkeeping anymore!

As always online - give people a quality useful service for free then offer something to buy as an option.

PM me if you need any advice on forums/eccomerce packages and so on.

cheers

specialyear · Jan 8, 2009

movietub said:
Never underestimate passion as a route to success. Even if the market place is saturated with people peddling the same things there is no reason you cannot outperform the majority. Finding really niche products is all well and good but guess what? You then have to track down niche customers!

I was imagining that most people searching for a self help book would be a little confused at the sheer number covering each subject. For those people at least a site containing solid reviews of each book along with side by side comparisons of similar books on the same subject AND a forum stimulated by your own enthusiasm and knowledge to allow people to share opinions of the books could add upto to one hell of a community.

Think of channeling your passion and enthusiasm to build an online community of a few thousand people, around 5% logging on each due to the forum. In effect getting to that stage can cost very little and provides prime online 'real estate' for the sale of books. I sell fishkeeping gear and get around 750 unique visitors a day and I'm not even that passionate about fishkeeping anymore!

As always online - give people a quality useful service for free then offer something to buy as an option.

PM me if you need any advice on forums/eccomerce packages and so on.

cheers

Thank you! That's very encouraging!! Will drop you a line

betterlanguages · Jan 9, 2009

My answer to this one is simple, I didn't. We took over an existing business. It was a typical small business, great at operations, lousy at marketing. We set about building a brand and winning new customers. I don't think its easy to come up with an idea from nothing. There's also the old adage that there is nothing new under the sun. Unless your idea is for a unique invention, then if its profitable, there is likely to be someone already doing it.

The key in my opinion is not to be unique, but to be better than the competition. Faster than, better quality than, better price than, unique location, etc. I think location is often overlooked as a differentiator. Many people will want to buy from a local supplier.

Hope this helps
Mike
translation services - in any language!

sparklyscotty · Jan 9, 2009

Hi all,

I am about to write an article on this very subject. If anyone has a good business comment on the topic, or feels that their business stands out as a good example of how finding/sticking to a niche has helped them to be successful in today's climate, I'd love to hear from you.

[email protected]

Angela
http://angelanealwriter.blogspot.com/

pgraves · Jan 9, 2009

We work onthe internet, and finding a niche market is a core part of what we do. Many people are out there looking for the killer product or service, and seem to spend years waiting for the perfect one to come up.

We consider a niche market on the internet to be any group of people searching for something which isn't being offered, or isn't being offered sufficiently well. So we always start with keyword research based on our areas of interest. The (free) Google Adwords Tool is a great place to start, but the process is reasonably involved so too much to explain here.

If I get a chance I'll post more detail on our Internet Marketing blog, otherwise if you want to understand the process more we cover it in our internet training courses.

A few interesting things about a successful product to sell (on-line):
1. It doesn't have to be unique - the incumbents in a market are often comlacent, offering poor service, and ripe for an energetic new plaer to come in and do it better.
2. It doesn't have to be the killer product - you just need to market it a little better than the others.
3. New products are often more difficult to sell. The uptake bell-curve illustrates that its not always the innovators that really capitalise from new ideas.
4. Stop looking for the killer idea and get stuck in with the one you've got. You could be waiting for ever for jsut the right thing. Perhaps the wait is just your subconscious excuse for failure to make it? Entrepreneurs get stuck in and have a go with the best of the available options, and learn faster by their failures as well as their success. Not getting around to it is not an option if you want to make any idea happen.

OK enough of a lecture from me,
Good luck with your search,
Regards,
Pete

AtYourService · Jan 9, 2009

We started our business out of pure frustration at never knowing what to do with our own dogs when we wanted to go away on holiday. How nice it would be to send them to another home/family as opposed to a kennel or leaving them at home alone to be visited once or twice a day by a friend or family member. Not to mention the imposition of asking friends or family to look after our pets. One never really wants to do that, but there are instances when one has no choice. As a result, K9Mums was born in October 1994.

We have been operating in South Africa since then (15 years!) very successfully and are now franchising our concept internationally.

Ideas, no matter how silly they may seem, are definitely worth pursuing!

Since then we have birthed "South Africa - At Your Service". That too is doing very well, but we are in the process of selling it as 24 hours per day is just not enough. (Idea for this second business came literally out of nowhere!

)

Michele
http://www.k9mums.com
http://www.southafrica-atyourservice.com

Jan 9, 2009

My internet business is certainly not unique, I specialise in silk wedding flowers and arrangements, of wich there are thousands.
Having been shop based for too many years to think about, a massive change of life came about and we literally moved to the other end of the country. My first thoughts were to get another shop up here, but there was nothing within a 25 mile radius available for many months. \going stir crazy I decided to set up my online business floralpride.com
The first year was slow, but within that time got my website up onto the top google pages for silk wedding bouquets, and now find that with the extra large image light box, people can see that we use the better quality flowers and are more inclined to buy their wedding flowers off the shelf, so to speak.
The prices are far cheaper than they would be in my previous shop, as I dont have the massive overheads, and in this economic climate I am getting more and more customers coming to me, the wedding is booked, the venue arranged and now they need to economise elsewhere. I give them a super quality product for a mid price range.
Customers do say that the fact that the photos are so clear encourages them to buy, and I make sure that they arent dissapointed.
I havent made my millions yet, but I have got a good business, more impotantly I love my job.

Deleted member 39357 · Jan 9, 2009

Seems your 'niche' may well be customer service etc Maybe you could manage sales for others?

Jan 9, 2009

I have been looking round to see if I could team up with other small businesses that would compliment what I do, tiaras/jewellery, cards, veils etc. but as yet have not found anyone locally (Aberdeenshire) who will do this. They seem to think there is some sort of trick involved:| If someone offered me a showcase on their site I would jump at it, but maybe it is me thats the odd one.
I make all the wedding bouquets from scratch, that is very enjoyable to me, and do not sell any 'bought in' ones at all. I like to think that my niche is good product/good customer service.

suggy · Jan 9, 2009

Like movietub, I think there's good mileage in just being better or more focused than existing competition or adding an extra angle.

I used to agonise over thinking up a killer new idea; then I was forced to "do something" out of necessity (marriage and kids!). That something was women's gift retailer pressies4princesses.co.uk and I haven't looked back.

Started it in a bedroom now we have a dedicated distribution facility in Birmingham. But, best of all, the office is still at home. I am starting to write the story of pressies4princesses at info.pressies4princesses.co.uk (not permitted to post urls).

What I would say is, start writing a blog for each area that takes your interest. Just get a £50 hosting account and Wordpress.

Starting blogging will do two things:

1) Immerse you in the subject, which in turn will start opening up ideas to you.

2) Give you a headstart when you come to launch the business. You can flip you blog into the new businesses website! This will save you loads of deadtime at the start of your project.

So I guess I am saying, build an audience then sell. It always works for me. With pressies' we didn't start retailing until we had 30,000 uniques a month. This enabled us to start retailing with only 4k capital and achieve a six-figure turnover and very healthy profit in year 1 with no marketing budget.

What did we do different at pressies to established competition? An absolute service commitment, focusing on a niche within the sector (not just "Gifts") and sourcing different (often handmade) products.

ps: Don't worry about not having a clear raison d'etre when you start blogging. You can always refine that. Just start by starting! The first step and all that...

Good luck!

adam_uk · Jan 9, 2009

My business idea came from doing what I love but I do quiet a few things and I love doing them.

Though I come from training set which we built and internet marketing, there were things in my life I wanted to do. So my traditional business were doing great but I wanted to do other things that if I didn't do them I wouldn't have felt I achieved my dreams. You know, the reason why I set up in business in first place.

You do business, time goes by, you get busy and well, you know, you don't make time for those things you so wanted to do in first place but didn't have money. Then you got money but busy.

I love writing. Have a passion for it but I looked at my culture and community, it is difficult to break through. Actually, many didn't read self development books, novels, from any author who don't have this tag like scholar name.

Anyway, I couldn't sleep and it was something I really wanted to do and thought, "to heck with it. It's what I want to do," and decided to put it down on paper, and get some tasks and go for it. I even bought books on writing books, novels.

I started writing and writing, and writing until I finished my first novel. I made friends online, and I had difficulty in internet marketing. So I learnt that and appplied it. The word got round because I would join one of the forums, and create full novel from my head on there.

People then from my community followed the thread. The word got round. When I finished the second book called Identity, the word was already out and I had people wanting to buy the book.

I gave the training centre to family and went into internet marketing, social media world and writing books, novels. And work to get these two things work for what I want to do. The word moved faster but now designing a blog for what I do.

I got out and travelled. I met different writers, artists, designers, people making things, inventing as well, and all from different communities. Also, I met people from my community who started as well. They mentioned how they are having difficulty and by then, I was doing great.

Then it came, just there! They said, "if only, someone can give us step by step to follow. Someone who has done it already."

Eureka! It hit me. I was buzzing. I went home. I got paper out and wrote down all I wanted to do.

I put video editing and compositions
books, novels.
How to design Magazine etc
Many more etc...

And decided, to do what I love, and document each step as videos, so I leave a legacy for those to follow.

I started with video editing and banged them up on youtube. Boom! People started watching and asking for more. From that, I got customers to ask for video editing after effects tutorials but on CDs. This caught on in my city too.

This caught on for Photoshop Tutorial CDs.

So now, I am documenting how to write novels too. How to other things as well, like internet marketing but doing it, so people see result.

The thing is, you really need to know what you want. It's got to be something you're passionate about. For me, I am buzzing everyday. Life is now not boring but alive.

It took a decision to find out, to write it down, to meet like minded people. The more focused you are in finding and putting action into figuring out, the more something happens. I didn't just do it when I want to. I was in the place, the zone of what I do. No distractions, no checking emails first, answering phone and all that.

It is what I do from day I get up and day I finish. Passion.

It has really opened my mind and helped to believe, anything is possible.

But I had to do a lot of giving too. Just to get people to know you. I put video tutorials On youtube, you'll see top video tutorials that could cost hundreds to thousand of pounds. This helps to get people to know you but I am now creating a blog for future.

SmallBusinessVoodoo · Jan 9, 2009

specialyear said:
I had one big dream but it is exactly just that for now as I don't have any money even to try it. And it requires lots of money, well over £500,000.00.

I can't add specifically to some of the excellent answers above but I'd love to know about your big dream. You strike me as a person with the right drive and enthusiasm to make a go of anything.

Steve W

peterthake · Jan 9, 2009

Bit of a personal story, but maybe motivational. I had a heart transplant in 2005 at the age of 39. When recovering I was very fidgity and stressed (a mix of the drugs and the numerous medical procedures!). About a month post transplant I purchased a yoyo on Amazon on a whim for something to do, and found it was a great stress-buster. Looking around to buy more yoyos I found there were very few specialist yo-yo stores outside of the USA, and they were not particularly good. So I began buying a few yoyos from the States to sell on ebay and to keep for myself. I could see this was a great business opportunity: it had always been my dream to run my own business and it took a brush with death to give me the guts to make it happen. The business grew and I was soon self employed. It is now a full-time business and turnover is still increasing. I no longer yo-yo: I don't have time!

So I would agree with the comments about finding a niche where you have an interest and where the competition is poor. While a niche market might seem tiny, on a global scale a tiny market can be quite big, I am a big fish in a very small pond but it suits me!

You say you are a trained accountant? Could you sell accounting software through a specialist web site?

btw - it is GREAT to be alive!

born2becool · Jan 9, 2009

Many say if you can combine a personal interest or hobby with your working life then you're in a very healthy place and almost bound to succeed.
Our business idea emerged from conversations with parents while sitting around a pool on holiday. My youngest was wearing a uv sun protection suit and lots of Mum's were really interested...
I researched the demand (through Google), looked at the competition and decided to test market (online) to see if it would sell.
4 years later and the business is going from strength to strength - thanks to lots of hard work, enthusiasm, excellent technical & marketing support and a few gambles that have taken off.
Oh, and getting the family involved!!

SillyJokes · Jan 9, 2009

We just wanted some extra cash. Drummed up £700 by packing envelopes and started selling fart machines.

That was way back in 1999, so we were lucky, not much competition and what there was was badly done so we've managed to do really well.

It is harder to start now, but like it's been said on this thread, you don't have to have a killer original idea. Just stop dreaming quite so much and start doing something instead.

born2becool · Jan 9, 2009

...your market potential and competition. If you can prove the demand is there and not being properly serviced (in our case high street retailers have problems carrying high price brands (skiwear esp) and many other online players were not exploiting the seo and search market. Today we're apparently one (if not 'the') top sellers of kids wetsuits and ski suits in the UK!!

websnail · Jan 9, 2009

Came into this thread late in the game but I thought I'd share.

When I started out in business it was because the lass I thought I was going to marry (Ooops!) was the career driven one and after becoming very disenchanted with care and community based work I kept plugging away at PHP coding and web design.

I then fell (literally) into tech support for a school and now have four that I look after and along the way learned about inkjet printers (something used a lot in primaries) their limitations and how they could be kicked into something that lasts 15 times longer.

I was headed towards Continuous Ink kits alone when a chance accident with some new tanks I was playing with opened my eyes to a use that should have smacked me in the head about 4 years ago... So I now have a growing demand in waste ink modifications for Epson (headed toward Canon too) inkjet printers.

The key thing that gets repeated again and again and again though is that there is absolutely no ruddy point in picking something up and saying "I can sell that" without any knowledge about it or a solid support base behind you. Too many examples of poor practice out there in the form of multiple CIS resellers (ebay especially) who haven't a clue about how they kits work or not and it drives folks towards the more expensive but knowledgable among the printing suppliers.

Ultimately IMHO, if you have a niche, a very real understanding AND a communicative, patient manner you really can go far.

DuaneJackson · Jan 9, 2009

specialyear said:
I've been lurking for a while and am amazed to see lots of people with its own niche. How did you all come up with it?

It was what I later found out was called "market driven". At the time there was no decent accoutning software around - I needed some, and so did a load of other startups I knew. So I created something.

specialyear said:
For the past 3 months, I've been reading books, ebooks, blogs and forums and etc... Everyone is talking a niche... and the best one should be around one's hobby/interest. I still haven't found one

Accounting software certainly wasn't a hobby/interest when I got started. Although I guess programming was.

It depends what you want to do. If it's a little side-business to earn some extra cash then yes, go for somethign you like/enjoy doing.

If you're wanting to build a big business and make oodles of money, then it doesn't have to be something you like doing.

Peter Bowen · Jan 9, 2009

I've owned several businesses and mostly for the wrong reasons. I would never again start a business out of a hobby. I've done this 3 times and although 1 of the 3 businesses was very successful I ended up losing 3 hobies - imagine eating your favourite meal 3x per day and you'll see how it happens.

My current favourite business is an online debt chasing system. The idea came from my own struggles with slow paying customers. I am not very good at being assertive (makes for a wonderfully peaceful marriage but it's not the best business personality to have) and I hated chasing money myself or paying my employees to chase money that should have been paid without chasing.

It was something I wanted and I guessed (right, luckily enough) that other business owners would probably also want to offload this horrible job and get on with the fun stuff.

For me the most important lesson in this is that you don't need an original idea - perhaps just a better implementation of something already out there.

serrano · Jan 11, 2009

I was sitting in a tapas bar with the brother in law and he mentioned the Spanish hams hanging from the ceiling. Next thing I did was go home and search for Spanish food suppliers/retailers on the net and as they say the rest is history... Had done retail before but never e-commerce so it was all very new, sharp learning curve for sure with lots of mistakes etc.

Incredible how an idea over a beer can actually transform into something profitable.

Inspirational thread...!

peterthake · Jan 14, 2009

Peter Bowen said:
I would never again start a business out of a hobby. I've done this 3 times and although 1 of the 3 businesses was very successful I ended up losing 3 hobies - imagine eating your favourite meal 3x per day and you'll see how it happens.

LOL Peter! Very true, but I guess it depends how important the hobby is to you. Conversely, I always thought of the old adage about an alcoholic running a pub: too much interest in the hobby could affect performance.

Urban · Jan 14, 2009

The best advice that I was given, was by the chap who took casinos to hawaii and made his millions. He said to look at a town and see what it hasn't got, think for a moment why, and if it makes sense give it that "thing" and move on. In this day and age, the town doesn't have to exist but the good ideas that have worked somewhere else do. As someone else said, find a way of doing something already being done and do it better or take it in a different direction.

Good Luck

phillip@ysatisfy · Feb 24, 2009

Here are my thoughts:
- Go with your passion
- Understand your potential customer base: Try to look at segmenting your customers by their potential value. Then take a deep look at your most valuable customers needs (services, products etc... they need)
- Build your business targeting potential valuable customers to you, and make sure you offer them the service and products they are looking for.
- Take a look at the competition and see how they manage their customers, and make sure you can do it better
- Get feedback from your customers to improve your service

If you do the above, you can build a solid foundation for a business with growth potential. It will also help you weed out business ideas with no legs before you waste time and money on them.

Good luck

Phill Hunt
Ysatisfy customer satisfaction and centricity consultant

PaddyPawsPetServices · Feb 24, 2009

I have a very special canine friend who came to me in a bit of a state ( physically and mentally abused, underweight ) I booked 4 weeks off work to ease her into a normal life, and had planned to hire a dog walker to take her while I was at work.

When searching for someone to walk her, many of the people I spoke to did not have insurance, had little or no experience with dogs like my girlie, and only walked in groups. For 2 years we managed with family members/friends coming in and letting her out for a break. But even the 3-4 hours she couldnt cope with being left on her own. She had severe Seperation Anxiety.

I was in an animal related job, but hated it, and had had the idea of setting up my own business partly so I could do what I wanted to do, but mainly so that we could get Kerrie back to being the dog that she should be.

I went on a 4 week course with the Princes Trust in Folkestone, which went through all the basics of business, everything from developing ideas, to swot analysis, accounts to advertising and marketing. Then I managed to secure a loan with the Princes Trust and got myself a mentor.

Paddy Paws Pet Services was born!

justdoit · Mar 25, 2009

Thought this was a great thread worth bringing back to the top.

stukie99 · Apr 5, 2009

justdoit said:
Thought this was a great thread worth bringing back to the top.

Well thanks for that because i've too read through the posts and it's definately worth a read.. thanks to everyone who's shared there personal experiences and achievements, I enjoyed reading

domainguy · Apr 6, 2009

Great thread. Here's my negative stint on it!

Theres lots of posts on successful businesses but the big problem is finding a decent supplier and at a low enough cost to return a profit, which is not easy. Most suppliers have an online presence and will sell directly and hence you won't get a great price for resale.

I've been down the route of hobby to business and that was selling records. I concentrated on the niche I knew and made very good moneym but the problem was the stock ran out. After buying up all my friends collections and selling on ebay I found it impossible to find enough stock. I would get bits and pieces from bootsales etc.. but it would just be pocket money. The only way that would make a going concern was if I opened a shop whereby people would come to me to sell their collections. That was a no no on the sheer cost of opening a shop.

Next thing was I found a new gadgety product which was scarce on ebay so I imported some from china to sell. It took about 2 weeks for delivery by which time ebay was saturated.
End of 2nd idea.

I am now constantly thinking of ideas but can't get the products cheap enough to make a worthwhile profit. I'm now looking more to services than selling products.

Definately agree on a niche. This is what I did on the records. You can't compete with ebay but drill down enough sub categories and you can make a good living.
Think of something that you need but cant find, or something you use but isn't upto the job or can be improved. If you want/need it chances are others do.

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