Regardless of economic conditions, good or bad, the key to survival is to find the niche for your business. Nobody truly sells to everyone, a product or service will settle into a certain set of demographics. Knowing who that is will help a business stay viable in all economic climates.

Determining clientele is an imperative. This understanding will better able to distinguish a business from the competition. Better marketing and better operations will stem from understanding the customer base. Taking the “we sell to everyone” approach is presupposing a lot and lends itself to a business becoming a me too business. Knowing a clientele will know sale cycles, industry specific nuances, and the trend setters. It will also let a business know when it needs to change to stay where their client base is going to be.

Many business who falsely believe that they sell to everyone during a good economy, will be left with nothing when the economy shifts. All because they didn’t shift with their customer because they did know they had customers, they believed they had everyone.

Which brings up another benefit to pursuing niche business, it creates loyalty. When niche clientele feels that a business exists just for them, they will follow the business. Actually finding reasons to do business for them because there is a sense of ownership. They will take care of what is there’s. Without that loyalty customers will just move down the road to the next thing without giving your business another thought. Niche business brings partnership.

In the trades there are plenty of electrical contractors. All waiting for a phone call from the phone book or submitting bids trying to win low bid situations. However, being able to finding niche business has helped Arnold Electric, Inc. grow. Not only has having niche business been able to let AEI distinguish itself, but in some categories AEI is the premier business in that niche.