How To Spot A Gap In The Market

Why you need a gap

Most of the businesses I see are very similar to other businesses, and often my starting point is to find out what that business does (or can do) which makes them remarkable.

A business based on a gap in the market should automatically be remarkable. They’ve been able to see something they can provide which no one else does.

They might have found something new to provide; Rubik’s Cube, kids’ scooters, a piece of the moon are all examples of these gap exploiters. You’ll note that many of these gaps are soon filled by cheap me too copy cats pretty quickly. By the time I got a Rubik’s Cube when I was a kid, it was a cheap knock off version from Brownhills Market.

A Gap In The Business Model

Or the gap might be providing a product or service in a completely different way. LoveFilm rents DVDs, but they captured the market by sending them through the post, rather than using the videoshop model, adding convenience and a huge list to choose from.

Gumtree provide the classified ads which local papers have made money from for centuries, but they’ve changed the model by making 99% of the ads free and putting it all online. Tom Peters calls this "creative swiping", where you take an idea from someone else, and give it a good twist to make into something new.

Copying Someone Else

The easiest way to find your gap in the market is to copy someone else. LoveFilm copied Netflix, and Gumtree copied Craigslist and transferred these business models from the US to the UK.

You could research what other people are doing in different countries (or other cities in the UK) and work out what gap you might be able to fill where you are. Ideally, you want to do this before whatever you’re copying has been widely written about, otherwise you’ll find a bunch of other people who are all doing the same thing, all launching at the same time as you.

Trends

You can find some amazing ideas by absorbing yourself in different trends in business thinking and what’s happening in particular markets. The world is moving pretty rapidly, and technology and economic forces are very fluid. The trick here is to research into certain areas, especially those which are not altogether obvious. If you have some knowledge in a particular area already, that’s good, but you don’t necessarily need to be a programmer to understand what’s happening in online technology - you can always buy programmers later. In fact, it can be better if you don’t have any industry knowledge as you won’t have any preconceptions and blind spots. One of my recent clients identified a gap in the market for a particular kind of product, and once she was certain that there was a viable business, she bought 2 days per week of consultancy time from someone who was already very established in that industry. That way, she was able to tap into a deep level of knowledge about suppliers, materials, manufacturing processes, without having to learn all this stuff herself.

Where To Get Started

You might think about: Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail and Free to get a grip on new business models.

Jessica Livingston’s Founders at Work to see how others have done things.

Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, and his blog.

New Scientist magazine can help you to think about the world differently, as can reading science fiction.

PFSK have a great blog about lots of weird and wonderful ideas.

And of course…… you can come and see me for a chat about your initial ideas and where you would like to take your business. I can help put you in the right direction, challenge your thinking so far, and most importantly, help you make money from your gap in the market. Buy me a coffee, and I’ll talk you through the initial steps; pay me a regular fee and I’ll help you make it into something real.

If you liked this, why not get to know more about Julia at The Joy of Business or follow her musings on Twitter.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here