How to spot opportunities…
This weekend I came across 2 wonderful examples of very effective thinking out of the box…
1. On how to show potential clients what you are capable of…
Matthys Ras is a brand strategist and designer with whom I am connected on LinkedIn. He sent me this cool “New (from) York (Zucchi)” with the following text:
“Hi York :-) I thought you’d like this and might want to use it for something … just a fun logo :-) “
Now… Matthys sent this without agenda, BUT this is far more effective than any marketing material or email. Instead of spending 15 mins writing me a message which I would probably not have read he showed me a small glimpse of part of what he offers. That is one of the most powerful ways to showcase your expertise. Of course you can’t do this across all industries equally… still: if you have expertise give it away with a short piece of advice on someone’s post, by making an introduction (Paula Quinsee is a master at this) or pointing people at the right resources. This gives you a chance to show off your experience and expertise as well as your ability to solve problems or add value quickly.
2. Finding your niche in an undifferentiated industry.
I was walking with my wife in a small city in Italy and saw this shoe shop where all shoes are EUR 29 (as a indication, shoes are usually between EUR 90 and EUR 130). We walked in to find a wall of (really beautiful) shoes for men and women sorted by size (to save space and stop theft they only display one shoe as stealing one shoe isn’t particularly effective :-) ). I asked the wonderful cuban shop assistant how this works and she told me that they go to all other shoe shops and buy their stock of shoes that aren’t selling or it is the few pairs and aren’t selling). This shoe shop essentially found a niche by solving other shoe shop’s problems AND being able to offer people a wide selection of shoes. As an aside, they get new stock from the shoe shops every friday.
Proust said…
… that the journey of discovery begins by looking with new eyes (technically speaking I am paraphrasing him as it was in a slightly different context)… I am not saying finding your niche will be easy, but trying the same thing over and over and over again also won’t help.
Here’s to new opportunities!!!
