When I talk to small business owners, most resist the idea of niching, often fiercely.
(For clarity, by ‘niche’ I’m referring to who you serve as opposed to your ‘specialty’ which refers to what you do for those people)
“I don’t want to limit my market” they say.
“My product or service can help everyone” they say.
“I don’t want to be put into a pigeonhole” they say.
“I’d get bored being limited by a niche” they say.
Then, usually with a grin I say something subtle like, “You’re wrong.”
The resistance to niching is an irrational emotional one.
Here’s the logic: The more specific your target market (niche) is, the easier it becomes to target those people. Then, the more personalised and engaging your communications to those select people can be and the more specialised your products and services can become.
These three things combine in a way that creates a remarkable experience – it gets people talking to other people about what you do.
Generic products and services on the other hand aren’t remarkable. People don’t talk about them and so ‘generalists’ have to chase new business rather than letting new business chase them.
Niching reduces both the cost in time and money of acquiring a new business while simultaneously allowing you to charge a premium in exchange for your specialised offering.
Rather than being an “Accountant” become an “Outsourced CFO for seven-figure IT companies that want to raise money”. Instead of being a personal trainer, become a “Body Coach specialising in helping obese men get under 20% body fat in less than 6 months.”
Get clear about your niche or a problem you can solve, and go all-in guns blazing for that market – write about it, give talks, create exclusive products and become known for it.
But what about getting pigeonholed and bored?
Again, irrational. Look at ANY of the real world success stories and your entrepreneurial heroes and you will discover they started with a teeny tiny niche, owned it, then expanded.
Write this on your fridge:
“YOUR NICHE IS WHERE YOU START, NOT WHERE YOU FINISH”
Branson started by getting known in the music business.
Olgivy started by getting known for sales training.
Facebook started by getting known by everyone at Harvard.
Amazon started by getting known for selling books.
Et al.
On the other hand, the people who present themselves as jack-of-all trades end up commoditised and competing on price. They take on so much low-paid work that they don’t have time to explore.
Focus Creates Value.
Prove yourself on a small, focused scale, have some victories, become excellent at something, and then take the learnings from it and tackle a bigger problem/market.
Brand Accelerator Australia.
During this one-day event, there will be five world-class speakers who will arm you with simple and proven methods for becoming more visible, valuable and connected in your industry. From niching, to turning services into products, to pitching and more…
Be Brave
Have Fun
Make a DENT
