Ask These Questions to Qualify Your Business Niche

October 21, 10:32 AMPhoenix Internet Business ExaminerCarma Spence-Pothitt

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Ask Questions to Qualify Your Niche

There is no point going after a niche that won't be profitable ... unless you're doing it for a hobby and not a business.

If you're serious about being in business ... online or off ... you need to be series about selecting and qualifying your niche.

Now, I hear you ask, "I know how to select a niche, but how do I qualify it?"

The answer is simple ... take your niche and find the answers to these questions:

1. Is the target audience big enough to sustain profitability?
If your target audience is too small, there won't be enough buyers of your product or service. You can usually find this out by finding an organization, association or other group that your target audience might belong to and find out (at least a ball park figure) how big the membership is.

2. Is your target audience hungry?
If you've chosen an apathetic market that doesn't care enough about the problem or desire you've uncovered to do something about it, they aren't going to buy your product or service.

This one is more subjective, however a good rule of thumb is to find out if there are currently products and services available to this market. If so, then you can be reasonably assured that the market is hungry.

3. Is your target audience willing to pay enough for your product or service?
If it costs you $6 to produce your product, but your target audience is only willing to pay $5 for it, you don't have a viable product. Since you found some products and services when you answered question 2, how much are they charging? Do you see any pricing trends?

4. Do you have access to your target audience?
Is there a place where members of your target audience congregate? If not, it might be difficult to get your message to them. If you were able to find an organization, association or other group that your target audience belongs to, will they let you contact their membership? Is there a publication that your target audience reads that you could advertise in? Is there a list of members of your target audience that you can rent or purchase? Does your target audience hang out a particular forums, social networking sites or even blogs?

If the answers to these questions turned up a big fat dud, be thankful that you didn't put a lot of work into a product or service for that market. It costs you a lot less to do this research before development, than it will if you have a product you can't move.

For more info: Visit the Women's Business Gallery blog at http://www.womens-business-gallery.com.