Man I'm so sorry about your niche getting over saturated. That being said, mind sharing what you're in now?
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
Entrepreneur
0 readers
1 users here now
Rules
- No Personal Attacks - criticism of ideas is allowed, attacking people is not.
- Self Posts Only - links can only provide supplementary material. Your post must contain enough content to have a discussion.
- No “How To Get Rich Quick” posts - This community is not about making a quick buck. Posts asking the community how to make $X, without making specific reference to a reasonable idea, are not tolerated.
- Avoid unprofessional communication - Please treat fellow entrepreneurs like respected coworkers, label conversations if NSFW and avoid deliberate provocations.
Please feel free to provide evidence-based best practices, share a micro-victory, discuss strategy and concepts with a frame work, ask for feedback, and create professional conversation. Treat every post as if you're at work and representing the best version of yourself.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I made the mistake of posting from an account that was easily traceable to my business and someone impersonated me, cloned my IG and attempted to scam potential clients. Scammers are so pathetic
Yes I never share product/store info online for this reason and the op reason. A ton of people are gonna ask for your help but your only hurting yourself in the long run. If you open the door for one person the odds they are going to open it for another are high
Can downvote me all you want, it's likely you and everyone agreeing are mediocre at business. I'm not even trying to be rude or contrarian. Everyone who hides there niche is almost always a very small business owner. I've come across a few 8 figure sellers in ecommerce who hide their niche and they almost always suck as people to talk to when networking.
If you're good at what you do, you don't hide it. Imagine Steve Jobs hiding the Mac and telling people it's a niche secret. No if you're confident in your business and product you scream it from the rooftops even if you don't need the distribution. If you're a shitty low end dropshipper, SAS company, or even worse a brain dead person with a physical location thinking someone's going to steal your carpet business in Austin, Texas... then you hide your niche. I just think this mindset is cancerous to business and humanity so I vehemently reject it.
I sell lint rollers on Amazon.com my brand is PetLovers.com. if you want to compete feel free our competitors are 3M, and Chinese sellers totaling 50M/year in sales. Even if our competitors weren't big I wouldn't be afraid. Feel free to hop in we're at 7.5M in revenue this year. Doesn't mean you'll match it though.
Is the lint roller thing real or just an exaggerated example? If real, what's your product or site link?
This reply may be true for certain industries but for other areas, such as antiques and flipping, there is good reason to guard niches.
Not even other competitors but other suppliers (like thrift stores) can absolutely cut into profits.
Both still stand as small businesses, are their antique sellers that make millions pretax annual profit? Maybe. But I'm guessing 95% don't. And people going to thrift stores don't even clear 6 figures usually, but yeah I'm aware some do. Ecommerce is my industry so I'm not speaking out of ignorance completely. I don't know much about antiques but I've visited many antique stores and I would imagine most are high five figures or low 6.
So ill revise then, guarding niches are for very small entrepreneurs who can be infringed by other small entrepreneurs who would pursue microniches. But they're still inexperienced or low skill ceiling entrepreneurs. That's not inherently bad, not everyone should pursue being a millionaire or billionaire. But if they're not and don't have high levels of success in business which is unfortunately factually quantified by revenue or investment money raised, they shouldn't speak with authority... because they don't have any.
Another important lesson in business is knowing when you don't know. If you can't fathom situations where sharing about your niche would be incredibly detrimental, maybe your corner of Amazon reselling pet rollers doesn't afford you as much entrepreneurial experience as you thought.
An easy example is a company working in a blue ocean sector, which is a huge reason to become an entrepreneur. Do you think someone whose company invested millions in R&D or IP development should go bragging about their market on Reddit?
How about a sector with an unusually high profit margin, for whatever reason? These exist all over and many businesses became huge by finding and exploiting these before anyone else.
You could argue that your IP should protect you, but anyone who's experienced with IP knows it's a bandaid or stopgap in many cases. You could argue if you're Mr Hotshot McBusiness then you shouldn't worry, because you're the only competent person in your industry, but there's a world where other competent fish moving into your pond could erode your competitive edge months or years earlier than it would have.
What is the profit margin in pet rollers like? Since we're all in a sharing mood?
1000%. Good on you for sharing business too
I really needed to read that this morning. You are totally right, and I think that this concept applies to so many things in life.
Bear with me here, but doesn't that make them correct to hide their niche?
A mediocre business owner who is there for the taking is making a smart move in not broadcasting that, surely.
Hmm, does anyone that just purchase a business know how to run it? That person shouldn't have a specific industry knowledge to run it right?
I’m with Peter Thiel that every business has a “secret” that is only truly known to the people actively operating it. I will speak openly in general terms about my industry, and sometimes give more details, but generally I protect exactly the tricks to make a certain business profitable and scalable because I don’t want more competition. Sorry but if I laid out exactly how I make my money then other people would naturally try to copy me. This is my livlihood