Finding your niche in small business

I wanted to write more about the small business marketplace as the demand for self employment increases among middle and lower class people. I have a friend who has been in the bedding industry for about 20 years. He started out with a family owned company that a few years ago decided to sell a portion of their interest in their company while still staying in the company. A little while after the transaction the investor company forced them out as it determined that it could run the company better on its own. Now, none of the new company people had a clue as to how to run a smaller bedding company and thought that they could compete with the 3 big bedding companies in the world and continue making high end beds. Well, as we know middle and lower middle class america has pulled back most of their finances as times got tough and people lost jobs. Fewer people were willing to go out and buy a $2000.00 bed from a small company thus creating a loss in business. My friend who was the operations manager and a regional vp of production suggested they back off of the high end beds and find a niche in middle level and lower end beds and corner the market thus finding their niche in inexpensive beds. The new company balked at that idea and as of Monday had a liquidation sale of the entire company which at one point was worth upwards of 26 million dollars. The expected net of the sale was gonna be around 5 million dollars and they are no longer in business. What I am getting at is it is important to target middle class america with affordable products as they are the ones that will carry you through difficult times. As for my friend, he is now going into business with the former family owners in the mid level bed industry imagine that, maybe they found their niche. See ya tomorrow......