If you find the gap in an established market, you are one-half of your long-lasting business success. This is the key success factor in the business world.
Why You Need to Find the Gap in an Established Market
Many companies want to find the gap in the market. The gap in the market is a specific area. An area where you can dominate. An area where are few possibilities for someone else to exceed your domination. If you succeed in finding a niche where you are the only one, it is great for your entrepreneurial career. But, also, it is great if you can find a space where you will be the unique player in an established market. The best market is a market where competition is low.
If you analyze a specific market, you can see that most businesses are like other businesses. It isn’t easy to find a remarkable business. A business that creates and offers something different from others on the market.
So, you will need to prepare yourself to be able to see something for your entrepreneurial career. Something that you can provide on the market. Something that no one else provides until now. It doesn’t matter if it is a product or service, your total offer, or an extraordinary customer experience. You will need to differ from other players on the market.
There are also disruptive products as a result of disruptive innovation. Here is a great video in less than 2 minutes explaining Clay Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation.
How Can You Find the Gap in an Established Market?
Here are four things that you can do to find the gap in an established market:
1. Start with your strengths
Your strengths are based on your competence, or knowledge, skills, and experience. It is something that you like to do, and when you are doing it, the outputs are amazing comparing with other people. Prepare yourself to take the following steps:
- Create a list of your most important strengths.
- Describe all the strengths you have listed in the previous step.
- List the things you can do depending on those strengths.
- Relate your strengths and the things you can do with possible problems. Problems that you can solve for other people.
In such a way you will know what you can do with the biggest strengths that you own.
2. Find a niche in the existing market where are unsolved problems
You need to find a niche in an existing market where unsolved problems are related to your own strengths. How can you find the niche in the existing market with unsolved problems that you can dominate while solving them?
Don’t have an idea or niche? You can create a Linkedin account to get started on this social media platform. Browse around to see what other entrepreneurs are up to.
You need to start with the market on which you want to focus your research on finding the specific niche.
The best markets that are worth your focus will need to have:
- High demand for the solution of the problems.
- Many existing products and services solving such problems.
- Lots of easy-to-find customers.
- The competition that you can easily beat.
When you choose the existing market where you want to find the gap, you will need to take the following action steps:
- Look again at your strengths and interests. Try to find a relation with the market and the problems that companies solve on that market.
- Make a list of the specific problems that aren’t currently solved and you can solve them.
- Make a list of the specific Improvements of current problem-solving processes.
- Test your conclusions from previous steps. Ensure that you test with potential customers on the market you choose.
Using this approach, you will come up with endless possible niche ideas. These niche ideas are possible places where you find the gap in an established market. If you start with your strengths and get positive feedback from potential customers, you are on the right way to dominate this niche in the market.
3. Copy and improve
Something that can help you to find the gap in the established market is to copy someone else. The idea is to copy something that exists and offer a better, improved solution.
You will need to research what other businesses are doing on the market at different locations. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there some gap that with your competencies and strengths can be filled?
- What will be extra value for customers if you fill those gaps?
- Are target market customers ready for improvements you will provide them? Can they afford what you will offer to them?
- Is it hard to copy your gap fulfillment from other companies?
If your answers to these questions are positive, you have something worth to you.
4. Research the trends on the established market
You can find amazing gaps in the established markets while researching different trends there. We are moving rapidly forward. The same is true for all established markets. The technological and economic forces are changing over time. You need to take this into account.
If you want to find great gaps, you will need to do deeper research in a specific area. While you are researching, try to find as much as possible things that are not so obvious to other people.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have any knowledge about the market or industry. Sometimes, this is better. In such a way, you will escape any possible preconceptions.
Research the trends related to marketing, sales, suppliers, materials, manufacturing processes… All these subjects probably have some gaps ready to be filled by you.
