About Niche Creativity

Mission Statement
Niche Creativity curates educational information, digital and print resource training materials for career seekers obtaining insights on artistic and entrepreneurial career paths as well as virtual consulting to educators working in secondary and post-secondary education.

The idea for Finding Your Niche began several years ago, when I was an enthusiastic, full-time college student in her thirties. Excited about using my research material for a practical book for entrepreneurs, I breezed through my academic work with plans to publish and educate others about what I’d discovered. Dee Adams had her life mapped out.

But my plans were rudely interrupted one summer afternoon when a stranger attacked me while I was on a routine errand. Injured, I was forced to leave school and, in addition, had to endure a five-year legal battle. On a positive note, I learned a lot about the hidden side of business, law, medicine, self-employment and disability issues, and victim compensation pitfalls.

Still hindered by a neck and hand injury, I was determined to complete my project and not let my attacker get the best of me. The creative side of me knew that I still had an idea for a business book that filled a void in the marketplace.

My passion for entrepreneurial activities began one summer, at age 11, when I sold neighbors boxes of Christmas greeting cards advertised in the back of a magazine.
In my teens, I dabbled in importing and exporting, and then operated a home baking service. In my twenties, I started a number of ventures, including a barter club for business and professional people. I bought and sold apparel as a special-purchase broker, started a writing service called “Affairs of Heart,” and wrote gags for cartoonists.

An avid reader since childhood, I collected out-of-print and current books on business, marketing, and career subjects, and maintained a large clip file of offbeat and interesting start-up stories. I contacted people I read about in articles to gain an inside look behind the stories. The struggles in starting a new business intrigued me. I discovered that the major issue in the lives of many would-be entrepreneurs wasn’t so much how to manage a business but how to decide on the right venture.

This site you’re reading grew out of my dissatisfaction with the hundreds of business books and educational material I reviewed. Many such books contained only a single chapter on the topic of how to select a venture, and the job hunter’s classic, What Color is Your Parachute, contained less than five pages on the subject.

Even great books lacked the information I needed to make an informed choice about where I fitted into an entrepreneurial landscape. The self-help exercises and quizzes weren’t much help. I struggled with peculiar arrangements of questions as I strained to figure out which answers actually matched my situation. Sometimes none of them did.

As instructed, I made lists of my favorite activities and discovered that if I wrote honest answers, then reading and eating desserts topped the lists. Not a good sign. My inventory of work experience proved respectable, except that I was not passionate about my primary skills.

I had many interests and a strong attraction to business in general. I’d dive into a start-up with enthusiasm, like thousands of others, only to discover that the great idea wasn’t so great.

Then I realized I had answers for finding the right niche business under my nose. I owned files thick with documentation from successful entrepreneurs, magazine clips, and research results. My interest in business was to research and educate aspiring entrepreneurs who didn’t know what kind of self-employment path to follow! My excitement grew as I sensed the makings of a publication that could help folks avoid the experience I’d had, and teach them how to identify their place in the entrepreneurial world without the costly mistakes.

I prepared a brochure and press release and approached the very resource that had befriended me for years—libraries. I pitched the guide to librarians, who knew what questions people asked; what business folks craved to know when they came through the doors.

More than 70 libraries across the country bought my years of accumulated research on this issue. A first edition turned into a second.

Today, despite the unexpected challenges, I love what I do, —educating budding entrepreneurs about my mistakes and revelations.

A lot of business material is written for people who already know what business they want to start.
This blog, a companion to the print and eBook, Finding Your Niche, offers book excerpts, free and low-cost educational resources, and answers your questions about the search for self-employment.

Pursuing a start-up with wholehearted enthusiasm and hard-earned money and having those hopes dashed is frustrating. Whether you’ve never started a business or you’re recovering from a wrong choice, Finding Your Niche will guide you toward a venture you’ll want to stick with and continue for years to come.

Disclaimer
The purpose of this blog is to provide information on how to choose a sideline or full-time venture. The author is not engaged in rendering legal advice of any kind. Seek professional advice from a qualified legal and accounting expert.