The Importance of Niche for a Sustainable Mission in a Down Market

We don't live in a vacuum. The stuff going on in the world affects us whether we like it or not. Politics. Economy. War. It all seeps into our consciousness, affecting how we see our world and live our lives.

Some say we should disconnect from those dramas. To an extent I agree, since getting caught up in them can exacerbate the fear and distrust that's bubbling to the surface, or distract us from what we're trying to do.

Yet some are so infused into our lives that it can be mighty hard to ignore them.

Take the economic melt down, for instance. It's wreaked hell on the general economy.

Small business has been hit particularly hard, and most new age entrepreneurs fall into that category -- providing holistic health care, spiritual healing, channeling, life coaching, self-development training, psychic readings, and of course books, crystals, and related items.

From the appearance of the various holistic magazines, there isn't any shortage of providers in the marketplace. The question is, has the marketplace caught up with the supply? Is there actually a demand for all that's being offered?

The economist in me says probably yes, that if there weren't a demand, there wouldn't be people out there working so hard to fill a need. Then again, I can't help but wonder.

Most are part of a new economy in its early developmental stages, where a stable balance between supply and demand can be hard to achieve.

New providers are coming online daily, often barely wet behind the ears in their new endeavors with underdeveloped skills and questionable business models that may or may not support a sustainable mission.

Many of their offerings reflect efforts to escape old, unfulfilling careers. Some apply a lifetime's expertise in new ways. Others go in completely new directions to express newly developed or discovered understandings and/or abilities.

To boot, many have depleted their financial reserves and have little staying power to weather a long or difficult start-up.

Customers, on the other hand, are certainly out there. The new age/holistic/conscious/green market is one of the fastest growing segments of our national economy. But with so many competing for their business, the result is a lot of choice that drives down price (as well as volume). And that's assuming that they have chosen to turn away from traditional practices toward new age ones.

Now, superimpose upon this embryonic marketplace the realities of living in a society where much of the cash has been sucked out of it by bad banking practices, government deficits, and dried up credit markets. When there's only a small amount of money to go around, food, housing and other necessities often find a higher priority than discretionary goods or services.

To boot, the advent of the internet and other technology tools has made it even more difficult to find adequately-paying customers. Look at the impact of the prevailing business model that the internet has spawned -- give it away for free.

Take the information business. So much information on a host of subjects is now made available for free (like this blog) that people are often reluctant to spend their limited sums for something where they can find an alternative source for free (or at least a whole lot less).

Even the free providers can suffer from such practices and find it hard to move customers from free to fee, thereby putting them in conflict between serving their "mission" and meeting their needs to survive. To make matters worse, even when people do pay, competition drives down the price to where the returns may not be enough to keep the mission afloat.

In short, in this age of free, potential customers are conditioned to think that they can get much of what they want without ever having to pay for it. The economy being what it is, why shouldn't they?

It is within this atmosphere that your mission will unfold. If you are to make a success of it, you will need to understand the nuances of the new energies and how they are playing out in the complex interplay between market and competition. And most of all, where your specific calling fits into that.

Just like the three most important factors in real estate investment are location, location, location, the three most important factors to developing a sustainable mission are niche, niche, niche.

You need to find your niche, that specific, narrow intersection where your calling, skills and experience meet market demand. Do anything else and you're doomed to struggle, if not outright fail. Find and stay within it and your chances improve immeasurably, regardless of how big (or small) your potential market is or how much money potential customers may have at the moment.

Those who say it doesn't matter if there's a recession are right, that we each create our own reality and the experiences it brings. Spiritual theory aside, you choose your niche, and that choice will greatly determine the course of the mission that will develop, not to mention the life and lifestyle you'll get as a result.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that. So try not to become so oblivious to what's going on that your desire to do what you want to do overrides marketplace realities. And by all means, do not stubbornly cling to desires of what you want your mission to be or how it must unfold, lest the limitations of your thinking become your undoing.

While it is good to move boldly forward as if we cannot fail, we all must understand that failure can happen to anyone. And though it can bring valuable lessons, it's probably not the course you want to chart for yourself.

At least, not unless you're a glutton for punishment.