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Find a Niche that Fits You and Your CustomersTo find a niche in business and create valued services, where you can make money your way, is a lot like finding an ideal vocation: Find a point of intersection between your talents and the needs of the world. Laurence Boldt, speaking in How to Find the Work You Love, says it like this: “Consider . . . a simple formula given by Greek philosopher Aristotle. He said, ‘Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.’ This simple statement tells you everything you need to know to find the work you love.” Same thing applies to finding the business you love, and making money your way. “In his book Getting Rich Your Own Way, financial consultant Srully Bolnick concluded after a 20-year study of over 1000 men and women that the popular belief that ‘wealth can come to you only as a result of doing things you don’t like to do’ is without basis in fact. ‘Like so many other thoughts about how to get rich, it sounds reasonable and is flatly contradicted by the evidence. In fact, if you don’t like your job, you are losing money. Lots of it.’ Indeed, Blotnick found that after twenty years, those who had pursued work they loved were actually making more money than those who had chosen their career based on what they thought would be most lucrative.” There is strong evidence pointing to the truth in this advice, in Built to Last, a five year study of 28 successful Fortune 500 companies conducted by former Stanford faculty member and business researcher Jim Collins. Here are several of Collins’ key findings: “Find out what you are deeply passionate about. Identify what you can be the best in the world at, (and, equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world at). Figure out the economic driver that will generate sustained, robust cash flow and profitability (often stated in a ratio like purchases per customer, or profitability per customer)."
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