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Narrowing is good advice given badly. A profitable niche is not simply a subset of a larger market; it is a group with a shared problem acute enough that being specialised for them is worth paying for.
Short answer: Identify groups complaining about tools built for someone else in industry forums or trade associations. These groups share an acute problem that general solutions serve badly and that costs enough to justify real payment, while remaining reachable through a list or gathering place. Expand along only one adjacent dimension at a time if the initial group proves too small to meet revenue targets.
The group can be identified and reached — there is a list, an association, a place they gather. They share a problem specific enough that a general solution serves them badly. And the problem costs them enough that solving it is worth real money.
Remove any of the three and it stops working. A reachable group with a mild problem does not pay; an acute problem in a group you cannot find costs more to reach than it returns.
Niching by industry — dental practices, marine contractors, independent pharmacies — works better than niching by size or geography, because industries share regulation, vocabulary, software and buying patterns.
That shared context is what lets you be visibly specialised, and being visibly specialised is what commands the premium.
This question routes to Startup Genius — one of 29 engagements the platform runs. It does not produce advice in general; it produces this analysis for your business:
✓ Sizes who could realistically buy this — not the size of the industry
✓ Estimates what a customer costs to acquire and what they are worth to you
✓ Tests whether the gap between those two survives contact with reality
✓ Models the cash you need and when break-even actually arrives
✓ Names the assumptions the whole idea rests on, ranked by damage if wrong
✓ Gives the cheapest test that would prove the riskiest one false
You watch the analysis get built before you pay anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
Small enough that you can credibly be the obvious choice, large enough that the number of potential customers times what each is worth supports the business you want. Working backwards from your revenue target usually sets the floor quickly.
Expand along one dimension at a time — an adjacent industry, an adjacent problem, an adjacent geography — keeping the specialisation that made you credible. Broadening everything at once returns you to competing as a generalist.
Look for groups complaining about tools or providers built for someone else. Industry forums and trade associations make this findable in days, and the complaints usually name the gap directly.
Describe the situation in your own words and we will tell you which analysis answers it — before you sign up for anything.
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