18 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
involved in business and communal activities, and team up with other like-
minded and compatible businesses and organisations for mutual support.
Again, much can be achieved via social media.
See Chapter 8 on how to improve your conversational networking skills.
19. Find a niche and specialise
If you simply do what the average business in your sector does, in the
average way, don’t be surprised if you get decidedly average results!
It is a business development truth that you should strive to be different
and one very effective way is to specialise in some way or cater for a niche
aspect of your market.
Let me give you one of the best examples of this that I have seen.
I walked past a hairdresser in Radlett, Hertfordshire. It is called ‘Sharkey’s Cuts for
Kids’ and, unsurprisingly, they specialise mainly in cutting young children’s hair. Let
me explain. All parents of young children know that taking little ones for a haircut
can be a challenge. At this hairdresser everything is designed around creating a fun
experience for children and a less stressful one for the parents. Kids can choose to
have their hair cut while watching a DVD or TV, or while sitting in one of several fun
chairs which include a racing car, a pink Barbie Jeep or a Mini Cooper.
In gaming chairs, kids can play computer games and some of the seats are themed
like a show business dressing room, complete with lights around the mirrors. The
ambience is bright and colourful and appropriately themed to appeal to kids. As
add-ons, they also sell appropriate merchandise, do parents’ hair too, have toilets for
adults and low ones for children, and have dressing-up parties.
Strip away all of this packaging and the bottom line is that Sharkey’s is just another
hairdresser, but by making itself so different and focusing everything on one particular
niche it sets itself apart and creates a unique and popular experience.
From a business point of view this is a brilliant business development
example of how to get a differential advantage over other hairdressers.
The owners told me that within three weeks of opening they were very
popular, with parents driving miles with their kids for hair cuts. Proprietor
Sara Kahn explained, ‘It is being different that makes us stand out.’
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