PART 1: NAIL A NICHE Painful Truth: You’re Not Ready To Grow. “NICHE” DOESN’T MEAN SMALL How do you know if you’re ready to grow, or not? Don’t let a big vision, or wanting to serve too many kinds of customers, trap you into sounding vague or confusing. HOW TO KNOW IF YOU’VE NAILED A NICHE When you’re a startup getting to your first million, or launching a new product, lead generation program, or market – one of the indicators that you’ve nailed it is that you are able to find and sign up unaffiliated customers. Unaffiliated. Paying. Customers. We don’t mean friends of your investors, or your old co­workers or boss. They aren’t past customers, partners, or part of your LinkedIn network. They weren’t referred to you; they didn’t hear about you from a group. They started out “cold” without the advantage of prior relationships.