Or do you just fail in a bigger way?  The danger in a big market, i.e. one with lots of potential customers for the product or service you are offering, is that everything else is bigger too.  That includes the competition, and the cost of getting to all those customers.  The size of the market undoubtedly gives reassurance that the market exists - remember if no-one else is doing what you want to do there could be a good reason - but, even if you have limitless resources, chances are you will be more successful focusing on a smaller niche within the bigger market.

Working out which niche you are going to focus on is the first step to success.  A niche is identified by the specific characteristics of the customers you are targeting, rather than in terms of the product attributes.  For example, if you sell ecommerce websites the niche is customers who want to sell online.  When I am coaching or meeting new clients, the first thing I do is ask them to describe their customers in detail.  The extent to which they really understand who might buy from them and why tells me a lot about their approach to marketing.

So, no surprises, I've said it before, all of marketing (and business) starts with the customer.  It is an excellent exercise to try and write down everything you know about your customers.  Visualise them in the place they live or work and where your product or service will help them most:

• Where are they - environment, location, geography?
• Who are they - age, gender, profession, lifestyle?
• What problems are they facing that you can help them solve?
• What options do they have?
• How might they go about finding a solution to their problem?
• How can you make it easy for them?

The things you learn from this exercise should feed into the marketing decisions you then make about product, price, place and promotion.  And if you find you don't have enough understanding about your target market then you must take steps to learn more, indeed you should never stop learning about what makes them tick as it will help you stay ahead of the competition, anticipating their needs before they know themselves.  How do you do this?  It will depend on the scale of your operation and budget available, but it does not have to be expensive:

• Talk to your existing customers regularly, or get out and meet potential customers informally.  Sound out your ideas and listen to the feedback.
• Don't just listen to satisfied customers.  If you lose a customer take the trouble to find out why - it could be something you can easily fix and either win them back, or at the very least, stop more customers going the same way.
• Create lots of opportunities for customers, or enquirers, to give feedback about their experiences.  Even if they don't avail themselves of the opportunity you will create a positive impression by being open to receiving comments. 
• For larger populations use market research surveys to give you more quantitative data on your subject. 
• Or use the resources of the internet to look for communities or fora where they might be discussing issues pertinent to your business.

Without customers you have no business - learn to love them and nurture them if you want to be successful, whether they exist in the 10s, 100s or 1000s.  You might also want to read my previous article on this topic: Know your niche!