Finding Your Niche in A Billion Dollar Market

Image courtesy of Jimi Filipovski

by Jocelyn Brown

As a budding solopreneur, the advice you often receive is to do what you love or find a topic that you are highly interested in when thinking of starting your business. Although this is great advice in principle, in practice there may be hundreds (or even thousands) of people who already have that area covered, so what do you do then?

Focus on the 1%

Remember that a general industry which might be worth billions of dollars in revenue can often be broken down into smaller sections or niches.  When thinking about your solopreneurship, you don’t have to try and claim the whole pie, just a small slice of it for yourself.  By focusing on the niche area, you are likely to have less competition and more success. 1% of a market might not seem like much in principle, but what if it’s a billion-dollar market?  Then it doesn’t seem so small!

Niche Ideas

The following niches are all examples of industries worth billions, where a small, focused niche market could do extremely well.  Just remember that these are ideas – things are constantly growing and changing.  In todays’ digital world what is a small niche one day could explode overnight with competition; equally, new niches are evolving all the time.  Use keyword research tools to find niches which have a high search volume, but that you might be able to find a new angle on.

Nootropics and Brain Supplements: The US supplement industry could be worth an estimated $37 billon. Nootropics are certain types of brain supplement that people take to improve cognitive function, are believed to sharpen your focus or improve your creativity.  They’re growing in popularity, and offer a great potential market as people are emotionally attached to the outcome.  Studies show that when people are spending with their emotions rather than logic, they tend to spend more money than they would otherwise.

Dieting and Weight Loss: This industry is huge – more than $64 billion in annual revenue and is expected to grow by 10% into a $120 billion worldwide market over the next 10 years.  It contains multiple sectors, with a huge number of products – gaining only a very small percentage of the market could potentially net you millions!  Historically, the market has targeted women more than men, with fewer products and programs aimed at them – so there’s plenty of untapped potential.

Survival and Outdoor Living: A niche which is driven by emotion makes it easy to appeal to a consumer if you can create a high-quality product which delivers a solution.  The survivalist and prepper industries are primarily driven by fear, and in today’s world pretty much any news broadcast contains something (change of government, terrorist attacks, threat of war) to drive a purchase.  This means that there’s plenty of opportunity to create content and products which are directly related to current events.  Products often don’t just appeal to preppers though – a lot of families want to put simple things in place to ensure their safety in the event of a natural disaster for example.

Healthy Cooking: Most people want to eat healthily, but a high percentage have no idea where to start – just look at the amount of junk food the average American consumes in a year!  This area generates more than $143 billion a year, and is continuing to grow as more and more people recognize the benefits of eating healthier.  With many different revenue streams, from recipes and cookbooks, nutrition, timesaving gadgets, to subscription and coaching services, the opportunities are endless, and often offer the chance for a repeat transaction – once people are convinced that healthy living is right for them they often spend hundreds of dollars on it in a single month.