If you’re utterly tired of reading business advice that just doesn’t correspond to your industry, you’re not alone. Much online business guidance, or even the platitudes given by business coaches, can sometimes seem like forcing a square peg in a round hole.

For this reason, you might constantly have to think “This doesn’t apply” when in a business lecture, or when taking the latest course by someone who promises to optimize your firm. As many great maestros of a given craft will tell you - sometimes, breaking things down to the constituent elements is essential. You just need to cook a steak correctly and with respect as opposed to throwing a million adornments and spices on it, for example.

So, what advice can be used for most niche industries? What can you learn now, fix up, and then move on with the more advanced advice you need?

In this post, we hope to discuss four underpinnings that can serve any niche industry, allowing you to move on and only update this advice, as opposed to going over the same concepts time and time again:

Implement Software That Adheres To Your Process

Almost no modern business runs without software. Even your local milkman, if they’re still in business, will use a digital ordering form to track their local customers. But “software” is not just one thing. It can be multiple, and provide many functionalities.

Ultimately, software designed for and with businesses like yours in mind is essential to consider. You must also make sure it’s scaled, to never pay for more than you use. Many forward-thinking IT firms provide a multi-disciplinary approach, from server and website hosting to cloud storage to cybersecurity and more. You can then pair that with software designed for your field, such as a field service app that helps you manage technicians as and when you need them.

Remain At The Pinnacle Of Compliance & Foresight

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the vast majority of commercial activity falls under some form of regulation. Sure, perhaps selling eggs from the chickens in your garden may not be subject to trading laws, but if you make someone sick with them, that can fall back onto you.

Remaining at the pinnacle of compliance and foresight means using consultants to properly evaluate your compliance before you submit for a trading license, before you sell to a market, or before you revolutionize your manufacturing process. It will ensure you never infringe upon vital laws nor risk downtime while corrections are made.

A Customized Marketing Strategy

You’ll hear a million opinions about marketing and how it’s best conducted from industry to industry, but the truth is every approach needs to be custom. You can define how this is curated by a few simple elements - what message do you want to send, how should that message be delivered, and who are you sending it to?

So for example, while a legal outfit might seem like the height of a professional firm, if you’re marketing your services for family court, you might take a softer approach to seem welcoming, and helpful at an emotionally charged time. Whereas if you were selling personal injury legal services, you may emphasize the need to “get what you’re owed,” motivating your client base. So, don’t think you have to fit the mold-breaking it will mostly get you noticed, as long as it’s in good taste.

Connect To Your Community

While a niche may be small, one of the best things about them is that they’re underserved. In some cases, they want to know you appreciate what they like and hope to serve them completely. For example, if you are into skateboarding, purchasing the apparatus you need to enjoy this hobby will be much more exciting if you buy your gear from a skateboard enthusiast store.

So how can you connect to your community? Does it mean using the jargon of your interest at all levels? Possibly, but it means more than that too. It’s about becoming a thought leader and full advocate of what you have to offer - be that registering to install a new type of boiler in your contracting firm, getting to grips with renewable energies and solar installations, heading to your local food markets as a restaurant, and becoming a presence in the market you’ve tried to curate.

This is where smaller businesses are uniquely placed to offer an authentic and transparent value proposition, which ultimately boils down to - yes, we understand, and we’ll serve you. If you can connect in that way, half your marketing task is done.

With this advice, you’re sure to manage those vital underpinnings in your best way.