Key Idea #1: Grow Your Business By Growing Your Niche. "In niches, there are riches." That's what Andy's grandfather said and two generations later, it is still the Murstein mantra.

Topic for Discussion: What did the founder of Medallion mean when he talked about "riches in niches" and is it still applicable today?

Answer: Most of us, when we hear the word "niche", think of "niche marketing", targeting the marketing efforts of a business toward a specific class of customer. But at Medallion, "niche" has a much deeper and broader context, referring to the entire business, its strategy and operations. Andy's grandfather owned a cab and a license to operate it, the medallion. He expanded to own more cabs, and more medallions. When Andy's father saw the opportunity to sell some of the cabs at substantial profit, he seized it. Financing those sales, to people they knew, in an industry they were intimately familiar with, was truly mining that niche.

All businesses have risk, and the probability of profitability increases as the risk diminishes. What Andy's grandfather was telling us was the better we know our business, the better we can manage our risks and the more likely we are to be successful. True in Leon Murstein's day and still true today.

You think about it: What are your niches?