Small businesses in America provide about 80% of jobs. The problem is: no one cares about you if you are small, especially in America where large corporations have all the muscle power to crush the little guys. For any up-and-coming, established small business, excellent public relations can mean the difference between healthy growth with substantial market share and stagnant returns. Recently, several businesses with revenues under one billion dollars were measured and ranked. Ronn Torossian wants you to know why they’ve been successful, and what you can learn from what they did right.
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Find the Right Niche
The most successful small companies understand who they are, and know what it means to operate within a very specific niche. This focus allows them to stay nimble, and to keep their message simple. Consumers don’t have the time to process complex messages. They need it quick, simple and immediately relatable. Niche marketing and messaging makes this possible. Questcor Pharmaceuticals may be competing in a massive industry, but it did so by riding its premier product all the way to the bank.
Jump Into Emerging Markets
One of the best ways to get established is to do something well or something different in a market that is on a growth trajectory. Find a way to apply your product or service in a growth industry, or find a way to get involved in an industry on the rise. Then, apply the niche concept to your efforts. Grand Canyon Education jumped on the alternative education bandwagon at just the right time. They came into a trail already blazed, but early enough to find a legitimate place at the table.
Be Ready to Fill the Gap
In business at this level, the market is always flooded with businesses about to go belly up, and others who are about to suffer a sudden decrease in market share. Be ready to step in when those companies start to slide. Last year was a great year for Ruger. Not coincidentally, massive rival Smith & Wesson was in the midst of a slide.
Understanding the right mix of potential, direction, opportunity and planning is vital to the success of any brand, large or small. Understanding how these, and other relatively small businesses achieved success, can teach you how to lead your own brand message and mission.
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Ronn Torossian is one of America’s most prolific and respected public relations experts. Torossian is the founder, president and CEO of 5W Public Relations, one of the 25 largest independent American PR firms, headquartered in New York with an office in Los Angeles.
