So that new super store is stealing your business. Or is it the enlarged grocery box? Or the cookie-cutter convenience store at each shopping center? Or the branded service firm with twenty agents? What can you do about it besides go out of business?

Don’t think this phenomenon of the big taking business from the little is new. Malls and shopping centers have been taking business from poorly located shops and stores and from downtowns for decades. Department stores were doing it long before that. Years ago fast-food eateries eliminated most drugstore lunch counters. Even earlier, mail-order firms closed down the general store. And the general store had made it unnecessary to take the wagon to the flour mill, the egg farm, and the weaver. It’s the flow of civilization—centralized, bigger, cheaper.

Okay, you say, it’s been going on forever. But now it’s hurting my business. What do I do?

Well, you notice the specialty eggs available at the supermarket today? You see the stores that specialize in everything you need for a party and the restaurants that serve authentic ethnic food? You heard about the chef who prepares your meal in your own kitchen? These are businesses that have found a very narrow niche. Some of them, such as Chinese restaurants, are so common and successful as a group that we don’t think of them as niche businesses. If your imagination allows it, you can even think of the super store as a niche. The problem is that so many of your customers visit that niche that it’s killing your business.

So take another look at your business. Would it help to narrow your niche? If you sell furniture, should you focus on having the best and most complete choice of computer hutches? If you have a bakery, should you concentrate on specialty decorating or whole-grain breads? If you are an auto mechanic, should you specialize in Mercedes or high-performance GM engines? Take a look at potential customers who want special products or service. Then take a look at the competition that usually gets those customers. Okay, they have longer hours, better customer parking, and lower prices. But what can you offer that they can’t?

The large-scale businesses cannot supply everything. They cannot be bothered to order your specialty garden items, cannot allocate the shelf space for the specialty flour you like to bake with, cannot stock the obscure book you heard about on the radio, and do not have the expertise to choose and install your home-theater components. No, their specialty is supplying the popular items at the lowest price possible from one convenient location .

That leaves available to you all the specialty items and specialty services that the collector, gourmet, and connoisseur need. And, if you choose the right niche, those items and services can make you a lot more profit per sale than anything the big businesses sell.

You are the expert in your business. Step back and take a look. What niches are not being served? What new niche can you create? Focus your business and reap the rewards for going with civilization's flow.

You can start narrowing your niche or looking at any business concern or opportunity with the business counselors at our SCORE chapter. Call SCORE at (320)240-1332, or email us at info@StCloudSCORE.org for free, confidential counseling.  And consider becomming a SCORE volunteer mentor and helping other small business owners.

John Eakins has been a member of SCORE chapter 406 and a counselor for seven years.