Niche Notes

When I was first asked to write a blog for Ramona Patch, it didn't take but a moment and I knew what I wanted to write about. My motivation for this endeavor is to share what I have learned in my 35 years (yes, 35 years, eeesh,) of retail experience to help others develop their home or niche business, and maximize profits. (Profits are a good thing, despite what you may have heard.) The blog format is ideal for this type of project, as it will give us a chance to interact and expand the knowledge base, something not available in other print media. In preparing my notes to begin this blog, my wife Dawn and I came up with an appropriate title that has stuck, "Niche Notes."

"Niche Notes" will be concise (and sometimes not so concise,) thoughts on how to develop or improve your home business with things that I have learned along my journey of turning my hobby of collecting oil lanterns into a global resource for everything to do with lanterns. I am often asked, "How did you turn such an old fashioned product into a viable business in today's fast paced world?" The short answer is "Diversification" which I will cover more in-depth down the road. We started at the same place many businesses get started, the kitchen table. Right from the start, we were diversified. We offered both oil burning lanterns, as well as electrified versions that we converted on—you guessed it—the kitchen table.  During the first year there was usually a dozen lanterns at any given time on that table, but over the second and third years that number started overtaking the place, which upset Dawn some but confirmed that we were on the right track and that we were going to either need a larger table or some other plan. 

The same course that we used to grow our business from the kitchen table to where we are today can be applied to just about any home business or service. So as not to create an information overload, I'll try to only pitch one niche note per post.

Since it is getting late, I'll end with the first "N.N.," which may be trite, but the most important of all:  Love what you do, and do what you love.  There is no sense in developing a home business if you don't enjoy it. The world has enough unhappy people, plus commerce naturally gravitates to people that enjoy what they are doing. I suppose we could call it "Newton's Gravitational Law of Commerce," or something like that. Think about it, how many times have you returned to a store where the help was grouchy, unhappy and just plain unpleasant? And on the flip side, don't you look forward to shopping where the help enjoys what they are doing?

That's all for now.  Look for the next Niche Note, which involves Alexander G. Bell.