Skill: jk-0001/niche-selection (version 0.1.0)

--- name: niche-selection description: Select and refine a profitable, focused niche for a solopreneur business. Use when deciding which market segment to serve, narrowing a broad idea into a defensible position, or evaluating whether a niche is worth committing to. Covers niche generation, multi-criteria scoring, validation checks, and the Who+What+Why positioning formula. Trigger on "pick a niche", "what niche should I target", "narrow my market", "find my niche", "choose a niche", "is this niche viable", "niche down". --- # Niche Selection ## Why This Matters for Solopreneurs You cannot outspend, outhire, or out-market a funded competitor. What you can do is out-focus them. A tight niche lets you speak the customer's exact language, dominate a small pond via word-of-mouth and SEO, charge premium prices (specialist > generalist), and build a focused marketing strategy on a lean budget. The goal: become the obvious choice for one specific group of people. --- ## Step 1: Generate Niche Candidates (Minimum 10) Brainstorm widely before narrowing. Use these three lenses: **From your own experience:** - What industries have you worked in or consulted for? - What specific problems did you solve more than once? - What do people already come to you for help with, even informally? - What frustrations did you personally have that no tool solved well? **From market signals:** - What are people complaining about repeatedly on Reddit, forums, Twitter? - What's trending on Product Hunt or in Y Combinator batches? - What SaaS categories are growing fastest? (Check SaaS Stats, G2 Buyer's Guide) - What new regulations or market shifts are creating new pain points? **From intersections (the sweet spot):** The formula: [Specific customer type] + [Specific problem] = niche. - "E-commerce founders" + "inventory forecasting" = niche - "Solo consultants" + "client contract automation" = niche - "Restaurant owners" + "staff scheduling and tip splitting" = niche Write all candidates down. No filtering yet. Quantity first. --- ## Step 2: Score Every Candidate Rate each niche on these six dimensions (1-5 scale each): | Criteria | Weight | How to Assess | |---|---|---| | **Pain intensity** | 25% | How badly does this segment feel the problem? Would they pay to eliminate it? | | **Your personal advantage** | 20% | Do you have skills, access, credibility, or insider knowledge here that others don't? | | **Market size** | 20% | Are there enough people/companies in this niche to build a sustainable business? (Aim: >10K reachable) | | **Monetization potential** | 15% | Can you charge a price that, at realistic volume, sustains your income? | | **Competition landscape** | 10% | Some competition = proven demand. Zero competition = possible red flag. Moderate competition with gaps = ideal. | | **Growth trajectory** | 10% | Is this niche expanding, stable, or shrinking? | **Weighted score = Σ (score × weight).** Top 3 candidates advance to validation. --- ## Step 3: Validate Top 3 Candidates For each finalist, run these five quick checks. Takes 2-4 hours total per niche. **1. Search volume check** Google the primary keyword for this niche. Check Google Trends for 12-month trajectory. Is there sustained, growing interest? A flat or declining trend is a warning. **2. Community check** Do active communities exist for this niche? (Subreddits with 5K+ members, active Slack/Discord servers, Facebook groups with daily posts.) Active community = active people with this problem who talk to each other = your future marketing channel. **3. Competitor gap check** Find 3-5 tools or services already in this niche. Map their feature sets and read their negative reviews. Identify one clear gap that multiple customers complain about. That gap is your opening. **4. Pricing reality check** What do existing solutions in this niche charge? Is there pricing room for your model? If everyone charges $9/month and the market expects free tools, your economics may not work. **5. Talk to 3 real people in this niche** LinkedIn, community posts, or warm intros. Ask 5 minutes of questions: What tools do you use? What's broken about them? What would you pay to fix it? If they light up describing the problem, you've found a live nerve. **Kill check:** A niche that fails 2+ of these checks is not ready. Either iterate on the definition or drop it. --- ## Step 4: Refine Into a Positioning Statement A good niche is sharp enough that you can answer YES to every one of these: - Can I name a specific type of person this is for? - Can I describe one specific problem they have? - Can I explain in one sentence why my solution beats what they're doing now? - Would this person immediately recognize they need this the moment they hear about it? **Use the Who + What + Why formula to write your positioning statement:** ``` [Specific customer segment] struggling with [specific problem] who need [specific outcome], and current solutions fall short because [specific gap I fill]. ``` **Good example:** "Freelance web developers managing 3-8 client projects simultaneously, struggling with status communication and revision tracking, who need automated client-facing progress reports — and current PM tools like Basecamp are too heavy and generic for their workflow." **Bad example:** "Small businesses that need better tools." (Too vague. Who specifically? What problem specifically?) **Refinement loop:** If your statement is longer than 2 sentences or feels generic, you haven't narrowed enough. Cut it down or tighten the customer/problem definition. --- ## Step 5: Final Niche Commitment Checklist Before you commit time and money, confirm every box: - [ ] At least 10,000 reachable potential customers exist in this niche - [ ] At least one competitor exists (demand proof) but no more than 2-3 dominant ones - [ ] You have identified a specific, validated gap in what competitors offer - [ ] You can reach this niche through channels you understand (SEO, communities, direct outreach, paid) - [ ] The niche has budget — they are already spending money on adjacent solutions - [ ] You can sustain interest and motivation working on this for 12+ months - [ ] You have or can quickly build credibility here (portfolio piece, case study, community presence) --- ## Common Niche Mistakes to Avoid - **Too broad:** "Small businesses" is not a niche. "SaaS founders bootstrapping their first product" is. - **Too narrow:** "Left-handed graphic designers in Austin." The pool is too small to build a business. - **Passion over pain:** You love the topic but nobody's paying to solve it. Passion is a bonus — pain + budget = business. - **Ignoring your edge:** The best niche is where YOUR specific background gives you credibility that competitors cannot easily copy. Don't overlook this. - **Skipping validation:** Picking a niche from theory alone. Always talk to real people first.


Security scan verdicts — ClawScan: clean | static analysis: clean | VirusTotal: clean | SkillSpector: clean (LOW)