I particularly liked Jim Blasingame‘s Wonderful World of Niches in one of his weekly emails last month. Jim is The Small Business Advocate, and he does a daily show on Internet radio.

I think most of us are already on to this, but still, Jim says it very well:

For the past 30 years, the marketplace has increasingly become like that ‘Best’ socket wrench; every year, it acquires more notches. Except in the marketplace, notches are called niches … As niches have increased in number, so have entrepreneurial opportunities, resulting in the most dramatic expansion of the small business sector in history.

That’s a good reminder. Strategy is focus. It’s not who has the largest target market, but who has a narrow and well-defined target market that loves what they do. Jim adds this example:

Rebecca Boenigk is the president of Neutral Posture, Inc., a Texas small business founded by her and her mother over 20 years ago. Rebecca and 75 employees manufacture REALLY comfortable and ergonomically correct office chairs. She told me that her business is doing just fine because they fill a niche, instead of trying to be all things to all people.

Are you focusing on a specific niche? Can you define that niche easily? Do your customers understand what you’re doing? Can you explain exactly who’s in your market, and who isn’t? Can you describe an ideal target customer in detail, as if you were describing them as a character is a short story?

(disclosure: Palo Alto Software is a sponsor of the Small Business Advocate radio show)

(Image: Dmitriy Yakovlev/Shutterstock)

This is a lively and easy-to-listen-to audio piece that covers business planning very well. It’s a discussion between Jim Blasingame, Small Business Advocate, and Kelle Olwyler, author of Paradoxical Thinking. Both of them are right on target about business planning in the real world, for real small businesses.

This is not about the academic formal business plan, but business planning to run businesses.  And, yes, I may very well be influenced by the fact that they’re agreeing with things I’ve written here and elsewhere. And Kelle’s list of myths sounds a lot like one I would have written (obviously because she and Jim are both smart and know what they’re talking about).

Olwyler’s business planning myths:

1. No time to plan:

Jim calls this a prescription to fail. Having no time to plan means failing to run your business well. Planning saves time.

2. Once you have a plan it doesn’t change.

Of course a plan changes, because assumptions change, and reality changes. A plan should be flexible and expect change.

3. The fact that things will change makes planning a waste of time.

This one is very closely related to the first two, of course, but it’s worth setting apart because you hear it voiced in these terms often. “Why bother to plan, since things change?” That of course misunderstands the relationship of planning to change: planning helps manage change. As the pace of change increases, planning becomes more, not less, important.

4. Plans are too big to implement all at once.

Very nicely put, and I have to admit, this is one that I’ve never heard before, and never written about; although it seems obvious as soon as you think of it. Olwyler points out that business plans aren’t implemented as the whole thing all at once; you implement a plan one piece at a time.

I’m proud to pass on the news that Jim Blasingame won a big award at the American Chambers of Commerce meeting last week. Here‘s the press release.

I’m pleased to join Jim on his Small Business Advocate radio show every once in a while. The first time I did that, back in 1997, I thought he was a natural interviewer and a good guy. I decided soon after to become a sponsor as Palo Alto Software.

His show and his fame have grown a lot since then. He’s won a number of major awards on his way up. Take a look at his website, sample his audio archives, and you’ll see why. He’s compiled more than 10 years of good practical interviews on important subjects in small business.

Tim Berry
President, Palo Alto Software