There are a million and one web hosting services on the market. It’s hardly a niche. The market is so saturated, why would you consider launching yet another one?

That’s exactly what my friend Kelly did. Her hosting business doesn’t stand out by competing on spec, or uptime. Kelly differentiates by understanding the problem to solve in a tiny niche, and going narrow and deep.

She realised that the biggest pain point for bloggers, was the helplessness they felt when things went wrong. When their site went down, there was nobody local available to answer the phone. Sure, they could get through to a faceless overseas call centre operative, but what they really wanted, was an unscripted conversation with a real human being on the end of the phone. And how many hosting businesses have a picture of the person who answers the phone on their about page?

Kelly’s business provides hosting, but what she actually sells is peace of mind.

She succeeds not by being cheaper, or more perfect. But by understanding the problem to solve perfectly.

The same opportunity is open to you.

Image by Carlos Bussenius.