Are you serving a small, under served market? If so, your guiding thought may be that your business is insulated from many forms of startup failure - fierce competition, unwavering customer loyalty, and price erosion.

I serve a number of niche markets in my personal business and work with a few clients that do as well. The upside of niche markets is tremendous - margins are higher and customer demand can be great. But I there are potential downsides. Beyond the misread of poorly defining your niche, offer, and market demand on the entry into a niche market; there are numerous things to watch while serving one. Primarily, morphing niches - a niche that really is a trend. Trends can dry up almost overnight and leave you serving a market that no longer exists. If you aren't watching your market carefully, you can take today's sales for granted and miss the fact that your business is in jeopardy of ending before you know it. Haven't we all seen or heard of businesses that thrived for the first year or two then disappeared overnight?

The Entrepreneurial Mind offers three additional areas to watch when serving a niche market and offer words of caution all niche marketers are wise to heed.

Do you serve a niche market? If so, what advice can you give the rest of us to protect our niche and thrive? If not, do you know of a niche player that model success�...one we should all look to as an example of great niche marketing?