Niche or not to niche?

You’ve probably heard or asked that question yourself. “Should I niche down or sell several services/products instead and be a generalist?”
For most people it’s a tough question to answer; so, you’re not alone. I struggled with it myself for quite some time until I learned what having a niche could do for my business.

How my niche helped me

When I started my first business, I didn’t have a clue about what a niche was. I was as skeptical as anyone when I first heard about it. Like “why would I narrow the range of potential clients to a tiny amount” it didn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t I earn less and have fewer clients?
On the contrary, I quickly learned it’s the other way around. It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, both freelancers and multinationals need a niche.
Yep, that’s right, we NEED a niche; let me explain why.

What does a niche look like?

A niche can be anything from a sector to a group of people, a specialized set of skills, a place, etc. From my perspective, a niche is nothing more or less than your unique market position. Sooner or later every business must know their market position, you can’t sell soccer shoes to a basketball player, right!?

There are a few basic things we need to know before we can sell anything to anyone. We need to know what we’re selling, who we’re selling it to, where we’re selling it and why we’re selling it. If any of them are missing, chances are quite high you won’t sell a damn thing. Not having a niche is the same as not knowing WHAT, WHO, WHERE, and WHY.

Ok, so what if we’re selling food, to everyone, on planet earth, because we need it to survive…?
It seems like a valid answer to what, who, where, and why…
It sure does, but what food are you selling?
We must make sure our answers are as specific and unique as possible. We can do so by asking ourselves a bunch of what, who, where, and why questions until the point we can’t answer anymore except with the same answer.

For example:

What food?
Fruit -> what fruit -> apples -> what kind of apples -> Pink Ladies,…

Why be specific?

When we answer those questions as specifically as possible, we create the most unique market position possible for our business. When our market position is unique chances are we have no to little competition to conquer that part of the market. Everyone that needs what you have to offer has no choice but to come to you; there is no need to share your customers. You become the expert in your niche, you have control over the market value, supply, and demand. On top of it makes it a lot easier to understand the needs and wants of your customers and makes it easier and cheaper to reach them with advertising and marketing.

As a result, having a niche creates your own unique business and brand, loved by people you like and people that like you and your business.

Thank you for reading, we’ll see you in the next blog!

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