3 Ways to Discover your Niche

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image via Unsplash, Jr Korpa

There’s a misconception that there are too many fish in the sea. That markets become oversaturated or that there’s not enough work, too few customers, or a lack of resources to support the desire for one to chase a dream of owning their own business.

I believe that this is incorrect. You just need to find your niche. Just because there is an abundance of opportunity, common offers, services, and goods that are the same as the ones you offer doesn’t mean that your value is lower, it just means you need to dive deeper, customize your services, and find ways to show that you genuinely care about your clients, customers, and community both on and offline.

There a few ways this can be done. One is more intensive and will require more time, skills, and resources. A common way to begin a business is to deep dive into building a business plan which will take you through things like a market analysis, determination of your competitors, long and short term goals, financial projections, and more.

But for those of you who are eager to get going or who are already established but looking to refine the business you’ve been running, my favorite way to refresh a brand is to utilize quick strategy sessions. I prefer this method for those who are already in business and who might not have the resources to fully invest in a brand business plan build out but who are still serious about getting to know their audience, tweaking their offers, and creating systems that allow them to continue to grow as start ups, entrepreneurs, businesses with small teams, and single person business owners or freelances.

I take clients through a multitude of sessions that allow you to find the answers to the questions you and your clients and customers have and allow to begin to fine tune your structures, communications, and offers so you can increase your revenue over time

Dive deeper, customize your services, and find ways to show that you genuinely care about your clients, customers, and community both on and offline.

Here are three things you can try that will help you discover your niche.

1. Get to know your vision, goals, and what makes you unique

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In order for your customers, client, and community to find value in what you’re doing, you have to share a value that is unique to others. If you have the opportunity to interact with them offline, then there’s an increased chance that they’ll discover your personality, be able to witness the quality of your work, and have the space to talk through their curiosities and concerns to help validate their purchase with you. But as we’re building more business online and going to the place where our customers live like social media and Youtube, understanding how you stand out amongst your competitors is necessary. And the best way to do this is to get to know WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW’s of what you are doing and what you are offering.

There are several ways to do this. If you’re in a pinch and want to do this on your own, you can start with the basic big question words listed above and start writing down all the things that come up for you. Who are your clients or customers? What is your offer? Where are you interacting with them. When do you want to offer your services, products, or offers? Why you over someone else who’s offering something similar? How do they find you?

This is a good place to start. And as you work through these questions, do it with the consideration of ONE or TWO offers that you have rather than than the full list of everything under the sun. The value in this is to speak to a specific type of client or customer, to narrow down your reach and offer, and to begin building relationships with those who are seeking the services, skills, and offers you provide. Not to try to reach far and wide. For this, think quality over quantity, big fish in a small pond.

2. Poll your clients, customers, and community

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You can do this in a number of ways. You can create a google form and share the link with your current newsletter subscribers and offering an incentive in exchange for their time like 10% off of their next purchase. Another, quicker and more timely way to do this is to identify a handful of people who regularly engage you and reach out to them directly. This can be as informal as a text message (if you have this existing relationship) or even as simple as a personal email.

Come up with a few questions that support the details you’d like to know from your customers that will help you better serve them.

I am working my way through a one month program with a small group of fitness entrepreneurs. Here are a few suggested questions I shared with them to help get you started:

1. What is your favorite thing about taking classes/sessions with me specifically versus other teachers?

2. What do you think is my strongest skill/offer that you have benefitted from?

3. What would you like to see more of from me if it were possible? What could I offer more of that would personally benefit you and your fitness/wellness goals?

4. What is your favorite way to connect online with me? What do you think might help you connect online with me better?

5. What are some of your current fitness/wellness goals/needs?

3. Outline your Offer

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Now that you’ve gotten to know yourself better and have narrowed down ideas of what makes you different from your competitors, you should be able to determine your niche. The main consideration with this for the purpose of this exercise is to do this for the short term. In the current cohort that I am leading with my fitness and wellness entrepreneurs, our focus is to create 1 month’s worth of content that supports merging their niche within a single offer.

Why? Because by doing micro-actions, you are able to see quickly what’s working and what can be adjusted to continue progressing forward. This is a great way for a a single person business to grow in real time.

Take the information you’ve collected in step one and two and use it to make an outline, checklist, and create content to support sharing your newly discovered or refined niche with your audience as if it was for the very first time. Remember, just because you think about it all day every day doesn’t mean that your clients, customers, or potential community does also. Share as if you’ve never spoken about it before and see what happens. I won’t be surprised if you discover that people who you thought were always paying attention have something new to say.

Digest the answers that you receive and compare them. What commonalities are there? What answers repeat? What things did you discover that you do really well or that you can do better?

This will help you determine your niche and a potential new or refined offer as your existing audience has already subscribed to and invested in your services so they are the best place to start with and the best people to model your growth off of.

IF YOU HAVE THE MEANS TO INVEST AND ARE LOOKING FOR MORE SUPPORT, CONSIDER WORKING WITH ME.

I WORK WITH CLIENTS 1:1 AND IN SMALL GROUPS TO HELP THEM ALIGN THEIR VISIONS AND RECREATE THE WAY THEY THINK, CREATE, AND TAKE ACTION PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY.

IF YOU’RE READY TO REALIGN YOUR WORKFLOW AND WORK WITH THE FLOW OF NATURE, JOIN US FOR THE SPRING COHORT OF RECREATING FLOW. THIS 6 WEEK COURSE WILL HELP YOU ALIGN AND REFINE YOUR CREATIVITY, STRATEGY, AND SYSTEMS IN SIMPLER WAYS.

Happy creating.