5 questions you should ask yourself when figuring out a niche

5 questions you should ask yourself when figuring out a niche The idea of working for someone else just doesnt sit right with some people. For those people, being an entrepreneur is the dream. Everyone needs a side-hustle after all. Deciding your own hours, working on something youre passionate about with a team you appoint? Yeah, theres a lot to like about it. But theres one thing that everyone who wants to take that path struggles with, and thats figuring out a niche. Finding a good niche is something that can make a business sink or swim. For instance, how many recruitment apps out there offer live streaming and cognitive assessments?  ?? Scalding hot tea aside though, its a hurdle that a lot of hopefuls fall flat on. Still, the world is changing constantly and were not at the point where everything has been done just yet. And since weve got a DebutLive coming up with EY and our CEO Charlie about supporting entrepreneurship, we thought you budding Bransons and makeshift Musks out there might want a couple of tips on standing out. If you want to lead yourself to a good niche, here are five questions you should ask yourself. What am I passionate about? Entrepreneurship is an opportunity to work on something thats close to your heart. This is a super important part of it as running your own business will stretch you like never before. Working on something you love will make you less likely to give up when the going gets tough. Think about the things you look forward to when youre not doing work and find a way to work them into your day-to-day running of the business. Youll never work a day in your life. What elements of my personality can I bring to the table? Every start-up has a piece of the founders identity in it. If youre the person who dreamed up a product, chances are that youve envisioned yourself using it. So look at yourself. What is it about you that makes you need your product? Are you your target market and if so, how can you use your personality traits to make it appeal to you? Think about how you like to work and how you would run a business too a unique way of delivering a product would also make for an excellent niche. Has this been done before? Its wild that we even have to say this but here goes: its not your niche if someone else is already in it. Before you get too excited about your big idea you need to make sure that its not already being run by someone else. A quick check of the patent office or a cheeky Google will put that to bed rather quickly. If you do find someone else already doing your idea, dont get disheartened. In some cases it can mean that youve found a niche thats been proven to be profitable. See it as an opportunity to analyse the competition, see what theyre not doing and develop your idea even further. You might be one added element away from making something truly unique. Is there a need for this? Sure, your product might be good for you. But what about the waiting public. Proper market research is super important when trying to decide on a niche. Figure out if your idea can solve problems for people or plug a hole in the market. You can do this by talking to people who you want to take advantage of your product, checking online forums and researching related search engine keywords. Essentially, find out how you can improve peoples lives. Is this profitable? Nows the important part. Youll need to ensure that you can actually make money from your idea. The best way to do that is to do further competitor analysis and see if similar versions of your product are out there. If there are a fair few, but not too many, then youre in a good spot. You should also set up a website and do a dry run of paid advertising to get the word out. Listen to how people react and respond, if your engagement is high, you could be on to a million pound idea. Find out more about entrepreneurship and how your employer can support it by tuning into DebutLive with EY on January 31st.  Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more careers insights.