Niche market = easy money

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Updated: October 3rd, 2022

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Niche market = easy money

9 businesses that niched down and won

At Starter Story we often talk about “niches” and “niche business opportunities”. We do it because we love them and we think they provide higher chances of success to new entrepreneurs.

But, what is a niche?

Essentially, it’s a portion of a larger market.

Let’s take an example category and trim it down until we have the most possible niche market.

Travel industry -> Accommodation -> Airbnb -> Camping -> Glamping (glamurous camping)

See what happened? We went from an industry of hundreds of billions per year to something waaaay smaller.

You can do this in almost every market. Refining it by the specific needs and preferences of its customers. You can use characteristics like:

Demographics (gender, age, income level, education level)
Price (luxury, moderate, discount)
Level of quality (premium, handmade, economical)
Geographics (country, language, weather)

What are the benefits of going niche?

Easier go-to-market. If you need to target a 75-year-old grandpa and his teenage niece, you’re going to be all over the place. They’re on different platforms, they need different messaging, they have different budgets, etc. By focusing on just one of them, it’ll be easier (and cheaper) to master how to acquire customers.

Brand authority. Positioning yourself as the go-to brand for a specific audience establishes your credibility over generalists. Do you think board game nerds will go to a megastore to find a rare game or they’ll go straight away to an online store that only deals with very sought-after games?

In short: you need to spend less money to start making money.

If you’re trying to find a business idea, working on identifying a specific niche is a great place to begin. There are countless profitable niches out there. The key is to identify a niche market you can master and that has a viable audience of customers.

Below, we’ll look at some founders that succeeded thanks to focusing on specific niches:

#1. Amish furniture online store ($250K/month)

There are thousands of furniture stores, but how many do you know that sell furniture made by Amish artisans?

Let me tell you that I knew exactly 0 before meeting this founder.

Remove the “Amish” keyword and it’ll be a drop in the ocean. When you add it, suddenly you have a clear image that this is a store that sells high-quality, artisan, rustic-style furniture. And the market for that is way more specific.

#2. An e-commerce-focused coworking space ($15K/month)

E-commerce businesses are on the rise, there’s no doubt about that. So it’s a niche, but it’s growing.

And these businesses have specific needs. As soon as they have a certain amount of sales, they need room to store, package and dispatch orders.

#3. Niche podcast agency ($35K/month)

It’s impossible to keep up with the number of podcasts out there. Entertainment, news,... and now many companies have also embraced them as a marketing tool.

The problem? There is a lot of information in a 30-minute podcast. And it usually just sits there.

This company extracts all that knowledge and transforms it into different pieces of content that can be shared (and searched) on social media, newsletters, websites, etc.

#4. Apple Watch accessory ($100K/month)

Yes, singular. They only make one product: An Apple Watch elastic band.

So, niche? Yes. But also consider that Apple sells millions of these every year, so it’s still a pretty big market.

The best part? They only needed $20 to start the business.

#5. Framed tweets ($25K/month)

We’ve mentioned this a couple of times already, but it’s so good I can’t help myself.

Not much to say about this. Simply read it if you haven’t because it’s an incredible story.

#6. Mystery game ($2M/month)

Board games? That’s pretty generalist.

The brilliant thing these founders did is to split the game into chapters and make it a subscription.

#7. Quilts ($800K/month)

Quilts are already super niche as a product, but making quilts from old t-shirts is a crazy good spin because:

You already stand out from all the other quilt makers.
People who wouldn’t be interested in buying a quilt might want one of these because they’re made of old t-shirts and nostalgia is a hell of a trigger.

**### #8. Beach towels for travelers ($450K/month)

By focusing on creating the best possible beach towel, these founders were able to tackle all the things they hated from regular beach towels.

How they dry, how much space they take, how heavy they are, etc. They were on a mission to design the best product for their personal situation, and they succeeded.

#9. EDM eyewear ($400K/month)

Do you know what EDM is? Good news, you’re still young-ish.

You don’t? That’s alright. It’s just a type of music some kids (used to) listen to.

EDM parties and festivals tend to be packed with people with unique outfits and accessories.

This guy invested $400 and in 30 months it snowballed into $1M.**

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Quick hitters

(1) This founder started a $72K/year business after becoming an expert in rejection. Being rejected is hard, no doubt. Being rejected 50 times straight even when you’re offering to work for free is way harder.

Instead of giving up, this founder took all the learnings from those rejections and became an expert in helping people how to get their dream job (which he did several times after all those rejections).

Taking your personal experiences and transforming them into a business is a very common path. And honestly feels very natural since you already are an expert in a field, why not take advantage of it?

These are some great examples: $840K/year app, $1M/year agency, $120K/blog, $240K/year garment.

(2) This couple started a $20M/year business. There’s this popular belief that says that you shouldn’t start a business with friends, family, or your couple. Well, this pair is living proof that all that is nonsense.

Why not work with someone you already trust and vibe with? The perfect co-founder may be closer than you think.

These examples are the perfect inspiration for those couples wondering if they’d work well together: Joe and Megan pull in $6M/year, Kelan and Brittany's courses make $240K/year, and this couple makes $6M/year.

Thanks for reading!

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meet the author

David Bustos

Hey there! 👋 I'm David, and if you ever got an email from Starter Story, I probably wrote it. With a background in working with startups and writing, being part of this team is kind of a perfect fit for me.

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