Riches In Niches [Hardcover]

This is great book! At least that's what the author says about it. Funny thing is - I tend to agree with her. I liked this book a whole lot. I wish it had been written some 20 years ago when the author and I were both starting out in our careers. She says she was a public relations worker and I was a young CPA dabbling in the practice of law. What this book provides is a powerful marketing, PR, and self-promotion system for any wanta-be consultant, trainer, and/or coach to use to become the known expert in their field. Are you a CPA, attorney, CFP, PR consultant, life coach, executive coach, business coach, or whatever? If so, then this book is for you.

This book is not the first of its kind. Five others that I have read that predate this book are:

101 Ways to Promote Yourself (1997), ISBN: 0380785080
Million Dollar Consulting (2002), ISBN: 007138703X
Get Slightly Famous (2003), ISBN: 0972002111
How to Position Yourself as an Obvious Expert (2004), ISBN: 0972094164
From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur (2006), ISBN: 0470050866

All of these books are highly rated at Amazon, and the instant book is my favorite of them. I like the way Riches in Niches is outlined, written, and especially the numerous lists that are included. You will learn in this book that writing articles, Web pages, eBooklets, eBooks, booklets, and books is an important way to build your credibility and to get the word out about your specialty. You will learn that blogging and Web sites are important. And you will learn that public speaking, whether it be speeches, seminar presentations, workshops, or training sessions, is an important way to promote yourself. All of these things are ways to make money, too. Then there is also the organizations to join, and the networking to be done.

I recommend the reader get a copy of Aiming at Amazon (ISBN: 093849743X) to supplement the book's coverage on self publishing and Printondemand (POD). The advice on these subjects didn't seem to be the "latest and greatest" as I understand them to be. And it's not so hard to make your own audio CDs today if you get a USB microphone for your computer. Therefore the advice at page 178 in the book is not quite current today.

I would have liked the book more if the title had been different. I saw this book at the bookstore several months ago and didn't pull it from the shelf because it had the word "niche" in the title. In my humble opinion this book is not about "riches in niches." This book is not about focusing; it is about promoting. I think it would have been better titled if it had been named: (1) Get Slightly Famous, or (2) How to Position Yourself as an Obvious Expert. But then, those titles were already taken in 2007 when this book was published. Oh well. 5 stars!

Friedmann has several good articles posted in the Mindconnection online library, so I was interested in reading her book.

When I was quite young, I excitedly told a mentor about several new things I was doing. His advice to me was to pick one and do it well. Since then, I have seen the wisdom of that advice proven time and time again. It is better to do one thing well than to do many things poorly. That philosophy is the underpinning of this book.

But it's not a rah-rah book that spends a couple hundred pages making the same point over and over. You've probably read such books. Whenever I have finished such a book, I wonder if the author has ever really put the advice to use. There's no "how to get there from here." Riches In Niches lays out a 7-step plan anyone can follow, plus it provides a ton of useful references. Throughout the book, you'll find short case histories that each illustrate a point.

The first chapter introduces us to the author. We learn why Friedmann chose the path she did, and we get to learn from her mistakes. The next chapter provides a detailed explanation of why it's better to pick a specialty than to try to be all things.

Chapters Three and Four lay the foundation for understanding how niches work. The next seven chapters (Five through Eleven) provide Friedman's seven-step plan. Chapter Twelve ties it all together and provides some additional insights. In the back is an extensive "Recommended Resources" section that, in itself, justifies buying the book.

Friedmann writes in a style that reminds me of a transcript of a public speech. This should not be surprising, as she is an accomplished public speaker and is, in fact, a National Board Director of the National Speakers Association.

Grammarians will give her a few red marks here and there, but those little errors don't seem to slow the book down. I think they just serve to illustrate one of the points Friedmann made in her book. Don't let perfectionism stand in the way of excellence and accomplishment. For many entrepreneurs, this is a nearly insurmountable barrier. It's the number one reason small firms tend to stay small.

You'll find other pearls of wisdom, plus practical advice on how to implement them, in this book. If you're already a niche player, that's great. You may find you can improve your game after reading this book. The same goes for someone who's an employee in a corporation. Don't be a commodity. Command an image of high value, instead, and reap the rewards.

As both a writer and a businessman I found many good morsels of interest for myself in Susan Friedmann's new book, Riches in Niches: How to Make It BIG in a Small Market. I really wish that I had read this book long before now because with my current business I only just discovered in a practical way last year how going for niche markets can really turn a business around. Susan Friedmann is herself a practitioner of her own advice: Susan consults for companies needing trade show marketing experts; a very niche market.

For the small business owner, the book is chock full of real life case examples from people who have transformed their "general businesses" (my words, not Susan's) into niche businesses and prospered by utilizing what Susan Friedmann labels as Susan's Secret Success Strategies. These strategies all force you to take a new look at your own business and look at how you are running it. Are you busy developing your own niche and creating a new market or are you trying to compete with Joe Blogs and every other Tom, Dick and Harry down the street?

Many of Susan Friedmann's strategies are common sense ideas that many business owners never get on their own. They involve ways to develop your own name as an expert through use of the media, blogs, etc., as well as portraying yourself as a well designed niche company through such basic things as your company name and the way your business card it made up. Susan even gives hints on how to determine what your own niche really is or should be.

If Riches in Niches had a draw back I think it would be related to how Susan sometimes goes into explaining the processes of business franchising, how to find attorneys, etc., which I feel are wholly different subjects. These are more than balanced though with other tips that I found invaluable, such as how to get more money as a trainer by developing CEU courses, how to get on the radio and television and how to publish a booklet on your expertise.

If your business could use a bit more refinement in the marketing arena I think you will find Susan Friedmann's Riches in Niches to be a quite interesting and compelling read. It also will make a very good reference for the future to return to again and again.

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