Many small businesses fail because of poor marketing plans. The marketing plans often have these major flaws:

1. The customer cannot easily be identified. The customer’s problem is not very apparent.
2. Competition is underestimated and underplayed.
3. The plan is too ambitious for the level of resources and capital that the company has to execute the plan.

For small high technology firms, I strongly recommend becoming the “King of the Niche”. These term means dominating a small market place. How do you know if you business is the King of your Niche? You are the King of your Niche if:

1. You can define your niche customers (or targets) easily.
2. You are the most dominant player in that marketplace.
3. Your customers are loyal—they buy from you repeatedly and recommend others to use your products and services.

Gasper Corporation was King of the Niche in the ATM Availability Management industry. There were bigger players in the ATM industry (Diebold, Wincor, etc.) There were bigger players in the Software availability management industry (Hewlett Packard, IBM, Computer Associates). However, in the narrow market of ATM availability management, Gasper Corporation was king. Market share reached 20% worldwide and 50% on all ATMs managed in the United States. No other player achieved those numbers. As you can tell by the difference between market share worldwide and the United States, Gasper Corporation did not attempt to over extend into international markets and thus limited its reach, even though it had dominance ability.

David Gasper, the founder of Initial Point sold Gasper Corporation at a premium, thus validating the value of being the King of the Niche.

Click here to read an article about Gasper Corporation on atmmarketplace.com.

If you cannot define yourself as the King of your Niche and need assistance in defining your market, then This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .