Good story of why people don’t share the info like specific niche about the businesses in this sub.
Last week I was talking to someone looking to buy a business about how I purchased a business in a specific niche. They were also looking to purchase a business but didn’t have any industry specifics locked in.
Long story short: individual emailed me a week later on company email as part of a (clearly mass) email campaign looking to purchase my business in the niche I had mentioned I bought in.
I’m actively looking to grow through acquisition and organically but now I’m fighting another who’s actively reaching outbound to others trying to acquire them too & id be pissed to find out he bought a competitor (bec I know I’d pay at least what he’s offering, if not more & it would be worth 2x more to me than him, plus just who honestly). Now imagine I post something about my niche to a sub of 1M+ or whatever this sub is. It’s a small world & bring e-commerce into it on this sub & it’s not unlikely you’ll bring a new competitor into the space.
Another important lesson in business is knowing when you don’t know. If you can’t fathom situations where sharing about your niche would be incredibly detrimental, maybe your corner of Amazon reselling pet rollers doesn’t afford you as much entrepreneurial experience as you thought.
An easy example is a company working in a blue ocean sector, which is a huge reason to become an entrepreneur. Do you think someone whose company invested millions in R&D or IP development should go bragging about their market on Reddit?
How about a sector with an unusually high profit margin, for whatever reason? These exist all over and many businesses became huge by finding and exploiting these before anyone else.
You could argue that your IP should protect you, but anyone who’s experienced with IP knows it’s a bandaid or stopgap in many cases. You could argue if you’re Mr Hotshot McBusiness then you shouldn’t worry, because you’re the only competent person in your industry, but there’s a world where other competent fish moving into your pond could erode your competitive edge months or years earlier than it would have.
What is the profit margin in pet rollers like? Since we’re all in a sharing mood?