Do You Need a Niche? My Answer Might Surprise You...
Now this is something that I am excited to dive into because I think that in the online space, “niching down” has almost become a buzzword/phrase. Everyone and anyone is telling you to niche down, whether it is with the people you work with or the services you provide and while I do think there is a time and a place for that, which I will get into later, I also think that the pressure to know exactly who you want to work with and what you want to do can stop you from actually taking action and figuring out what those things are. So let’s talk about it.
First of all, what is a “niche” or what does it mean to “niche down?”
Well, according to Google niche means: a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. In other words, a specific group of people, consumers or clients, that would buy a particular product or book a particular service.
When people are talking about niching down, they are really saying “figure out the specific audience you want to market to, or work with, and do that”.
Now like I said there are many many pros to niching down and we are going to talk about those too, but really my answer to the question “Should I niche down?” my answer is: it depends.
Maybe this is controversial because I feel like I am constantly bombarded with the message that you 100% should always figure out your target audience right away and niche down so that you can be successful. And again, sure, there is a time and place for that… but I think there are also benefits to NOT as well.
Let me give you an example, and I talked about this a little in the last blog actually, but when I started my business, I offered and focused on social media management services. I thought that was going to be my niche: support small business owners and online entrepreneurs by helping them with their social media content, marketing, strategy, etc. Then last minute, I decided also to offer some more admin-type services as a general VA.
Once I started booking and working with clients, I found myself preferring the role as a virtual assistant over a social media manager. I really liked the broad scope of tasks and more of the back-end admin work. Now I still do some social media management and content creation for a couple of my clients, but it isn’t a service I specifically offer anymore, although our agency does and we have people who love and specialize in that area!
This is the prime example of what happens when you niche down too quickly… what if you don’t like it? Or what if you like something better?! I wouldn’t have really known that I was more excited about supporting entrepreneurs with their administrative tasks if I wouldn’t have tried it.
The same thing happened to a course student of mine! She was working more as a general administrative VA for clients until she started working with a gal who is an influencer and needed her to do some basic graphic design for her social media profiles. She actually happens to have a degree in graphic design, but she hasn’t been in the industry for 8+ years so she didn’t think that was something she really wanted to specialize in. But after working with this client where she was creating these graphics, she realized that IS her jam. And while she does still take on clients who need some admin support, her niche, or ideal client, really is content creators and helping them save time by creating their graphics for things like LTK, social media, blogs, and more.
So those are examples of how not niching down so quickly can be beneficial, because you are able to try things and figure out what it is you really want to do.
But now, let's talk about when it is good to have a niche or get really specific with your audience! Now there will be lots of specific scenarios where niching down is beneficial, but I want to talk about three in particular:
You are positive that is what you want to do
Look I am not here to tell you NOT to niche down if you know exactly who you want to serve! I am all for it. Especially if you have experience in the industry and know that there's a gap you can fill.
You want to stop trading time for money
One thing about being a VA, which we will talk about in a future podcast episode is you really are most often trading time for money because typically you are paid by the hour. There are definitely ways to package up your services as a general admin VA, however, it is easiest and most common to really get specific on who it is you want to serve, and the services you want to offer, then package those up charge accordingly! This is a great strategy for social media managers, Pinterest managers, podcast managers, copywriters, if you are someone that wants to specialize in a system and do system setups like Kajabi, Honeybook, Dubsado, etc.
You want to scale
This goes with the “stop trading time for money thing”. Maybe you have worked as a virtual assistant for a while now and you are booked out by still not hitting your income goals. You can do two things: 1) raise your rates, 2) niche down to get specific on your offerings, so that in turn, you can create packages that align with your services and goals.
And let's keep in mind that niches can change! 100%! Especially as you get more experience and get more clear on what it is you want to offer! Heck, you might even come across something down the road you didn’t even know existed and you want to specialize in that! You just never know and I think it’s important that change is okay, especially if it keeps you more aligned with your work and business!
So ultimately, do I think niching down is a bad thing? No not at all. I think that there is definitely a time and a place for it, especially as you want to grow and scale your business. And if you are reading this, and you know for sure who you want to serve and what services you want to offer, go do it! But the point I am trying to make is I don’t want the pressure of finding your niche to hold you back from starting or trying new things.
I think it’s possible that the best way to find your ideal client or niche, is by keeping your mind open to different opportunities.
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