Finding Your Niche

The idea of becoming an independent planner sounds so seductive, doesn’t it? Never again having to answer to someone other than yourself; being the boss; making all the decisions. The most important decision when going out on your own, of course, is what kind of planner you will be. The options are endless, as are the variations. Will you handle corporate or association events? Large, midsize or small gatherings? Local or national? Training seminars, incentive trips or general sessions? Will you serve a specific industry? While the choices might seem daunting, successful independents end up planning the kinds of meetings they do best -- and love most.

Before hanging up your shingle, “be brutally honest with yourself,” says Barb Taylor Carpender, CMM, CEO of Taylored Alliances in Denver. “What is it you do well? What is it other people think you do well and why?” asks Carpender, a facilitator who is working with Meeting Professionals International to design programs for small-business owners.

What follows is some expert advice for finding just the right niche.

Jump in with both feet

Five-star, luxury programs are the specialty of Masterplan Inc. in La Grange Highlands, Ill. The company was founded 16 years ago by president Mary Jo Blythe, CMP, when the destination marketing company for which she worked was sold.

“The clients I was working with were gravitating toward higher-end programs, so that was where I felt comfortable,” says Blythe, who now has 17 full-time employees and about 25 independent contractors who go on-site to assist during programs. She incorporated in 1991: “It was time to decide if I really wanted to take the business and run -- and I did.”

Eli Gorin, a young independent who founded his company, gMeetings, one year ago, already has chosen Latin American meetings as his niche. “I’m fluent in Spanish; I can understand Portuguese,” says Gorin from his Aventura, Fla., office. “Miami is the base of a lot of Latin American divisions of large companies. I want to work not just with people going down there, but people coming here.”

In researching companies that hold meetings in South and Central America, Gorin found many have planners for their U.S.-based meetings, but their departments aren’t large enough to handle events out of the country. “I noticed administrative assistants and secretaries are setting up these meetings,” he says. “I’ve been offering my services to them.”

His hard work recently brought in a new client: a technology distribution company holding events in many countries. “My contact said their resources are stretched thin,” Gorin says. “If I prove myself here, they could become a long-term client.”

Take time to focus

While many people who start small businesses take the leap with a good idea of what services they will offer, the real nature of their new companies tends to emerge as they evaluate the clients they are winning.

“What I find with the business owners who have successfully niched themselves, they do start out with a notion of finiteness,” says Jan Norman, author of four books for small-business owners, including What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business (Kaplan). “But experience helps them shape that idea.”

In almost 20 years of writing a column called “It’s Your Business” for the Orange County Register in California, Norman often has encountered entrepreneurs who had the right general direction but didn’t get specific enough. For example, she says, some planners knew they wanted to handle corporate business but needed to hone in on a specific industry.

Two years ago, when Daphne Meyers was laid off from her job as program manager for partner events at Microsoft, her company, Red Barn Group, was born. “I had this business model: Here’s the things I know I don’t want to do,” says the Durbin, N.D.-based independent. “I think I have found my niche now. It wasn’t the geography I expected; I expected to be more national. I now work more locally, coming in and helping do meetings better, wrangling volunteers, doing some project management, some strategy.” In all, Meyers says, “I’ve found this to be a really great spot for me.”

Even if independent planners start out taking whatever business comes along, they should aim to develop an expertise.

Pat Ahaesy, CMP, CSEP, and her husband, Vincent, married their strengths to find the perfect niche for their New York City-based company, P&V Enterprises: general sessions and recognition events, which use her abilities as a planner and his talents as a producer.

“We find that so often a planner doesn’t know how to use a production company, and a production company doesn’t understand the planner,” says Ahaesy. “We translate for each other.”

Ahaesy started out 12 years ago by exploring the pharmaceutical world, on the advice of a friend, but the fit wasn’t right. “We started doing general sessions and recognition events by chance. The first two we got were by luck,” she says, and then, by word of mouth, similar business came their way.

She thinks new independents should find their specialties in a more conscious way than she did. “I would tell a young independent to think about what area of planning he or she likes, and to research that to see what the business opportunities are,” Ahaesy says.

“I think it’s critical for a planner to have a niche,” agrees Eisenstodt Associates’ Joan Eisenstodt, a conference consultant, facilitator and trainer from Washington, D.C., who has made a hobby of helping young independent planners. “You don’t want to get caught working with a client where it’s not going to be a good fit.”

Looking at an independent’s limited resources -- including staff -- author Norman says it just makes sense to find a niche: “It’s the way to maximize your profitability.”

Allow for change

Independent planners should never feel pigeonholed by the choice they’ve made to specialize. Economic circumstance or even boredom can spur a change.

Norman points to the burst bubble of the tech world as a time when many small-business owners had to metamorphose to keep afloat. “Those who made money in the late ’90s with the high-tech companies had to find other niches in order to survive,” she says.

Independents can look at their businesses as a three-legged stool to help them through such times, Norman adds. “You can have three niches: one counter to the current economy, one in tune with it, and another focus, so you won’t be on such a roller-coaster ride.”

Even Eisenstodt has changed horses since opening her offices in 1981. “At one time I had done work for organizations that did citywides, but I realized I didn’t want to do that anymore,” she says. “I love doing contracts for them and will still do that, but my preference is to work on the agenda and logistics of meetings that are for 350 people or smaller, especially those that will fit in conference centers.”

She also used to have a staff but now works on her own.

Reach out

Whether you know the direction you want your business to take or you’re still separating the wheat from the chaff, ask experts whenever a question arises.

Meyers of the Red Barn Group, who started out knowing what she didn’t want to do as an independent, talked to many former colleagues and other business owners. “I spent a long time floating business models by people I know, trying them on,” she says. “I’d ask, ‘If I did this, do you think people would buy it?’ My niche evolved from there.”

Masterplan’s Mary Jo Blythe says she tried to solicit advice from people both within and outside of the industry: “Some were friends, some were clients, some were colleagues I had worked with previously.”

Network at chapter and national events held by Meeting Professionals International, the Professional Convention Management Association and other industry associations, suggests Taylor Carpender. “Whichever organization you are affiliated with is a great place to start,” she notes. “You just have to raise your hand and be brave enough to say, ‘I don’t know it all.’?”

Local organizations can provide networking opportunities as well. Among them is the Kansas City Independent Planners Exchange, founded in 2002 by two area entrepreneurs. “We now have about 70 people in our database,” says co-founder Sue Heley, CMP, of Heley Creative in Prairie Village, Kan. The group holds quarterly education and networking events, where members “share information, ideas and resources.”

Look outside

Finding a seasoned independent planner who is willing to be a mentor can be invaluable. But it’s also a good idea to talk with business experts who are not in the hospitality world.

“Find someone at the community college; do some Internet searches,” says Norman. “Be clear about what you don’t know and what you need to find out, so you can discern between people who can help and those who are blowing smoke.”

Tapping into marketing resources can be paramount. “A lot of finding your niche is finding out who your customers should be,” says Norman.

An arm of the federal Small Business Administration called SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (www.score.org), offers counseling to small-business owners through chapters in every state. Volunteers are prepared to help with questions on starting, growing, financing and managing a business.

“SCORE is a very valuable resource,” says Norman. “But some individual counselors are not helpful at all. If you don’t find what you need, find another counselor.”

She also suggests using another SBA resource for entrepreneurs, the Small Business Development Centers (www.sba.gov/sbdc/), which also are available in each state.