Commit to Your Niche
Today we will focus on choosing your niche and committing to it. It’s a word that is intimidating to many people. I went and googled the definition of niche (and yes, it can officially be pronounched neesh and nich).
niche /niCH,nēSH/ A niche in the market is a specific area of marketing which has its own particular requirements, customers, and products.
Denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.
Let me explain it in some simpler to understand terms. A niche is not broad. A niche is narrow. It’s a group within a group within possibly another group, with a specific pain point that needs solving. Let me make a small list of real people’s niche examples to give you the picture:
Dr. Caroline Leaf is an incredible neuroscientist and we go to her for specific answers on mental health.
When my teeth are in pain, I go to my dentist that I’ve seen since I was 11 years old. His name is Dr. Mark Thevenot and he’s AMAZING. I do not go to a general doctor of any kind when I have a cavity. I don’t go to a chiropractor. I go to a doctor who specializes in teeth specifically, my dentist.
When I want to learn how to start a business, I don’t go to a mechanic. I go to someone who has specific experience and training in the business world.
When you want homemade cheese, you go to your neighbor who is a farmer and makes cheese, not to a hairstylist.
Those are obvious and maybe laughable examples but it’s true though. When you feel it’s extremely important to get a specific task done right, you go to the person who specializes in something. When you need a plumbing situation solved, you don’t call a business coach.
Most entrepreneur’s start as DIY Do-It-Yourself-ers and usually feel that they’re pretty decent at everything they try, and they most certainly wouldn’t think of paying someone else to do it for them. So when the entrepreneur starts their business, they usually want to serve everyone everything that they need. It’s very tempting to do that especially when you just really want to start seeing a cashflow from your new business. You say yes to everyone’s wishes and requirements, and I mean yes, sometimes that’s necessary for a little bit at the start while you’re working on formulating your exact business plan, but in general this isn’t the way we want to run a business.
There will come a point when you realize that a LOT of time is spent trying to serve all the different demands. You could be much more effective and trusted if you became an expert of ONE thing. Maybe TWO things, but not everything. I’m going to guess that nobody reading this right now knows any one human alive today that’s known for EVERYTHING.
Here are some examples of real people who chose NOT to become known for everything, but rather chose a niche that they are good at.
- Anna teaches other teachers how to create graphics for their class presentations. She doesn’t just teach graphic design to the wind and all creatures who breath. She’s specifically teaching TEACHERS how to design specifically their class presentations.
- Marin teaches women who are entrepreneurs that love/need organization about branding. She’s not teach organization to all women, not even specifically to housewives, but rather to women who are going into business who have both a need for better organization in their schedules and lives AND need better branding. Marin is passionate about both aspects and so her message resonates with female entrepreneurs who need both organization and branding in particular.
- Jenn teaches women who are in the military how to become entrapreneurs. She’s not just teaching everyone everywhere how to be an entrepreneur. No; she herself is still military and she knows the ins and outs of that life and how to speak to other women just like her who yearn to start on the entrepreneurial journey. She speaks that language and fills those needs.
- Heather helps artists to create a second income by working with corporates. She’s not targeting ALL artists out there, even though I’m sure all artists could learn a ton of helpful things from her! She is particularly targeting the artists who want a second income and are interested in selling their work to business men and business women in the corporate world.
- I myself have a niche too! I am here to help MOMS of younger children to create a high profit business by providing lots of free information, a paid membership with weekly video coaching and monthly business masterclasses. Now, I’m happy to help most people who come my way. I’ve had single women, married older women without kids, and even dads interested in my web design and coaching! But nevertheless, my marketing message and heart remains turned toward the moms of the younger children. Maybe that’s just the phase I’m in for myself at the time, and maybe my message will evolve over time and i’ll find an even clearer niche that feels right to my heart’s calling.
In the past lessons I have helped you to brainstorm your passions, skills, and past experience and turned them into one solid business idea. Today, my message to you is to niche it down! If you decided that you want to make jewelry and sell it, that’s great! But tonight, it’s time to decide to WHOM will you sell your jewelry? What kind of style are you going to specialize in? What kind of crowd will wear your jewelry? You could narrow it down to saying, “I make custom high end jewelry that has the names of a parent’s children inscribed in each piece.” That’s pretty specific.
If you decided that you want to create a digital course on branding, that’s awesome but it’s pretty broad. What are in branding are you good? Are you a pro in Photoshop? Lightroom? Canva? What kind of branding do you love doing? Maybe you have done a lot of branding but you have found out lately you completely adore making workbooks and ebooks specifically. So perhaps instead of saying “I teach a digital course on branding,” you could take it many notches more in depth by saying, “I will take my students from A to Z on how to create their perfectly branded workbooks and ebooks to a higher level using the simple tools provided on Canva.com.” That’s way better than just saying, “I do branding.”
Why is the niche important? Doesn’t it weed out sales rather than increase sales? It seems like there would be fewer people who would want a course on creating ebooks in Canva as opposed to people who need general help with their branding.
Actually, it’s much EASIER to market your business when you’re specific. Think of doing facebook ads. Who will you target? When you’re speaking to EVERYONE, you’re actually speaking to NO ONE. When you speak to the needs and pain points of ONE person, there will be hundreds of people who identify with that ONE person. Like, for me, that ONE person I’m speaking to is a mom of little children who’s desire it is to bring home a high profit income. I’m not preaching to the masses. I’m not targeting every entrepreneur everywhere, even though I can sure tell you I’ve been tempted to do so.
But what if I told you that I have a closed community of likeminded passionate moms who have young children at home, and we come together on a weekly basis to brainstorm together and keep each other moving forward in our business goals. We meet via live video group coaching calls to share our successes and the things we’re currently working on. And monthly we have a masterclass that’s focused on specifically chosen business topics laser-focused on specific problems that these business moms face.
You enter with a desire to create a high profit income, and you end up becoming the mom of your dreams who DOES EARN a high profit income as a result of my community. It’s only 19.99 per month if you join today!
Kinda draws you in if that applies to you, doesn’t it? If I said, “I have a community of awesome entrepreneurs and we hang out and it’s just so cool,” nobody would pay a dime for that.
So. What’s your niche? Type it in the comments below this post!!! 😀
- Who are you serving? What’s the broad group? Entrepreneurs? Moms? Dads? People with allergies? Artists? Parents with children that are on the spectrum?
- And then narrow it down to their pain points if you can.
- Or narrow it down to a style.
- Or a subgroup of that group.
Downlaod the worksheets if you haven’t yet, and fill them out. These are SUPER helpful, it’s the EXACT FORMULA to help you put it into words.
As I mentioned earlier, I do have a closed community of moms who are becoming business buddies and we get together weekly to brainstorm together and help each other move forward with our business goals. In that group I teach HOW to do the things, specifically and practically applied to YOUR specific business. So if the free lessons lead you to wanting additional support, I would be happy to welcome you in. It’s a closed group and I currently have a small handful of founding members with whom I’m setting up the groundwork for when the group opens up. So keep your ears tuned for more information on that as I’ll be launching that in the next month or so, I expect.
For now though, while you wait, head on over to the Free Lessons/Worksheets page and check out the free business lessons and worksheets there! Each free lesson comes with a simple but powerful worksheet to make the lessons more fun and engaging and practical for you.
Kay then Loves, that’s it for now! Remember, I’m always here to brainstorm with you!
