Finding a Niche Market for Your Small Business

Atilla Kocsis
Founder/Partner
USMall Inc.
CERR Inc.
DigitalFYI.com

Back in 1994, Atilla Kocsis had what seemed like a really good idea — a Web site that high school students could

use to take tours of and learn about different colleges and universities. Others also thought his site was pretty cool. Shortly after the site was built, PC Magazine named it one of the year's top 100 Web sites. Traffic to the site jumped.

Kocsis thought he had a hit on his hands. But it turned out that he had merely awakened the sleeping giants of the college publishing world. The big publishers of college books — Princeton Review, Peterson's, College Board — had already created reams of content on colleges. And they had much deeper pockets than Kocsis did to support the needed technology. Soon, Kocsis' site paled in comparison.

"It's kind of a sad story," says Kocsis." Now that the Internet has grown up a bit, I might have received better venture funding and been able to compete. Then, it was tough to find the right partner. It was fun though — we got a lot of good press."

What did Kocsis learn? "You've got to be quick," says Kocsis. And, if you are a small company, without the resources of an industry leader, you need a niche you can defend. Kocsis thinks his college Web site might have survived had it specialized in virtual tours of college campuses, for example.

Today, Kocsis's niche is the association market. His most profitable company, USMall Inc., in Alexandria, Virginia, is primarily dedicated to helping associations with databases and higher-level programming. "We provide the solutions that our clients don't have the resources to do themselves," says Kocsis. Recently, USMall built a virtual press kit for one of its association clients.

Next, Kocsis plans to grow the company through partnerships with other small Internet consulting shops and through new products such as Co-elaborate, a shared document posting board that allows association board members and other far-flung colleagues to communicate. The program also alerts its members when new minutes, meeting dates and other key documents are posted for review.

"There are larger players out there that have similar products, but none that cater to the association market," says Kocsis. "Within a half mile of my office, there are at least 50 associations. We're going to go after this market fast and furious." He won't make the mistake of being too general again.

— Susan Smith Hendrickson