What is it to niche your business? Niching is when you market and service a small, well defined specific selection of the population. No longer do you service ‘anyone with a pulse’ or service a broad section of the marketplace. For example, I have niched someone and provide business coaching to professional services and tradies. I have two niche markets. So often, people (particularly those newer to business) see only that by niching they are saying goodbye to all the other possible opportunities. Yes, that is true, but I’ll show you why it actually can be more beneficial in doing that.
Read Why Writing in Business is Important.
When describing your niche to someone, it will immediately give them an idea of what you are talking about. There are many benefits that you can have from staying with and understanding a particular niche.
Let’s take a look at what the benefits are when you niche your business:
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Your business can become more profitable:
When you have a particular niche it is easy to fulfill your customers’ wants and needs. You can even develop one kind of program for your niche without having to bring changes to it every time you are working with a client or customer. You will see that the work gets done in a much more efficient manner and is also profitable. Your systems, processes, methods can be singular and thus very streamlined. You don’t have to adjust what you do to different situations or customers. Imagine if you only made clothing for premature babies; you would not need patterns for more than a couple of sizes. You would not have to carry stock for all the range of sizes from baby to adult. You have simplified your business.
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You become an expert:
If you work with the same niche every time, this makes it a whole lot easier for you to know them very well, and know their industry very well. You will know industry terminology, you will have relevant connections, you will have great know-how do to the extensive experience you have working with that industry. You are able to cater to their needs well because you are well aware of the needs. You will have developed trust, rapport and faith in your specialist abilities.
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You can start charging more:
Niches are usually small groups of people among the wider groups. If you can understand and clearly demonstrate the fact that you know your niche well, this can serve as an advantage for you. You can show that you are capable of adding more value and thus, you are also in the position to charge them more. Look at heart surgeons versus a GP. People will pay much more to see a specialist, than a general practitioner because they know the specialist can deal well with their heart problem. Sure, if they have no heart problem, they have no need of that person, but every person who has a heart issue will seek a specialist to achieve an optimum outcome (staying alive!).
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Improved customer loyalty:
When you stick to the same niche and understand them better, you will see that your customers become a lot more loyal. Since you are speaking in the same language as them, your competitors who are not experts in your niche may have a hard time building trust and rapport with your customers. This gives you the upper hand. More customers come to a specialist and will stay. Do you prefer to work with a person who has a little knowledge about lots of things, or someone who knows everything about the one thing you really need to work on?
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Get better and more referrals:
As it becomes easier for others to recognize your talent, your clients will start referring you to other potential clients. As you start becoming more and more visible and credible and your main motive is clear to everyone, it will attract more people to your business.
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Lesser competition if you are more unique:
If you make yourself more unique and cater much more unique services, there will be lesser competition for you. Create specific products for some target people. The more unique your services are, the lesser competition there is for you.
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Marketing becomes a lot easier:
Niche marketing is much easier and this is mainly because you will be able to attract the “right people”. People with similar interests are usually attracted to similar things. Google searches can be very specific and for you, very effective if you are niching.
Besides the points mentioned above, one of the most important reasons for having a niche is so that you can target on only the needs of these people. It is almost impossible to meet everyone’s needs and so this makes it extremely important to have a target group.
You might even be skeptical about doing it initially, but you need to battle these thoughts and come out strong. There will always be a need for generalists … I’m not knocking that, however, if you have an area of expertise, strong experience or know a specific area or industry extremely well, then consider niching to what is already your strong point. Chances are that you are attracting these people automatically through word of mouth, why not start promoting yourself as a niche expert?
One thing you should remember is that you don’t have to only have one niche. You can have a couple – like myself – I specialize in both tradies and professional services which include other coaches with my Coach the Coach ™ programs. Yes, you may consider niching risky, however, the benefits are definitely there. If you already have a solid number of clients in an industry, you are already semi-niching, you may not just be telling anyone about it. Rather than being a Jack (or Jill) or all trades – consider being a specialist who is sought out, sought after and is in great demand.
