From Niching Down To Niche Of One

The riches are in the niches.

That was the advice that I’ve been listening since my first year on my entrepreneurial journey.

And, no matter what book, YouTube video, Instagram page, or expert I listened to. They all said the same:

”Niche down”

And I did it.

Actually, you can still watch the website of my “niched-down” marketing agency that targeted specifically tech startups and growing software business here: growmysoftware.com

Did I experience the so promised success that comes with niches?

No.

Why?

Because “The riches are in the niches” is a great advice — but it’s so out of context that it quickly converts into a nightmare.

A good market is arguably the biggest advantage that you can have when starting a business.

I mean, as we talked in a past article, every business needs to focus on only three things to start:

And, when you’re starting out, a big and hungry crowd of customers will give you the initial boost to later improve your product and marketing strategy.

A bigger advantage than having a great product or great marketing strategy, but few initial customers.

That’s one reason because people obsess (far too much) over finding the perfect niche.

The other reason is the ability to put things off for a while due to “research”, but this research is 80% of the time nothing more than procrastination disguised as work — but that’s a topic for another article.

Anyway, the well-intentioned advice works great only in the next context:

Let’s break down what that means.

1. Powerful, but small.

The best example are cultural supermarkets.

I mean, if you’ve ever traveled to Florida or California — you will find a lot of Latin American supermarkets that outperform Walmart when it comes to Latin customers.

Why?

Because they sell multiple Latin American products that don’t make sense for Walmart to put in their stores.

This strategy is known as blue oceans. And I won’t talk much about it, as there are already multiple articles & books on the subject.

2. You understand the niche

After spending multiple weeks researching for the perfect niche and reading tens of market reports, economic forecasts and expert interviews (maybe I was just delaying the leap with pointless research).

I found that the most profitable niche to have a marketing agency was the tech startup niche.

I went all in on this market.

But, when I presented my offer to my potential customers, they thought I was a crazy and dreaming kid who knew nothing about businesses.

I mean, do you really expect that a company who has raised millions from investors would hire a part-time college student to lead their marketing strategy?

Obviously, no.

But, why did I expect it?

Because I had no idea or experience on the market — thus I didn’t understand their needs, habits, processes, problems or goals. Things known as industry best-practices.

3. You like the niche

Maybe tech startups are too complicated for a kid.

However, what about chiropractors or dentists?

As classic examples of profitable and beginner-friendly niches.

Well, you may find out that they hire you and buy from you.

The question is:

Will you enjoy working for them? Or, do you do it just for the money?

Because, honestly, you’ll spend more time with your customers than your own family.

And, you’ll quickly discover how unfulfilling work is when you’re pursuing something that doesn’t align with your interests.

I’ve been there, and I don’t recommend it.

It will make you feel like going back to high-school, where you had to show “interest” for every subject because “good grades are important”.

If any of these three reasons don’t apply to the niche you’re working on, I suggest you to reevaluate your strategy.

Does that mean that niches are useless?

No.

Niches are very powerful because you can focus your energy on a defined group of people. Making your offers, marketing and sales messages more effective than selling to everybody.

“The riches are in the niches” is still true.

But, you need to focus on the right niche.

The niche you know the most.

The niche that you clearly understand their problems, needs, habits and goals — thus, you can craft a solution that seems perfect from their eyes.

You know exactly how and where they buy this solution — so you can craft what seems to be the perfect marketing strategy from your niche perspective.

Here, most people argue they don’t know a niche that well.

Which is completely false.

Everyone knows at least 12 niches that well. It’s just that they haven’t zoomed-out to discover that they’re standing above a niche.

For example, let’s say that one of your habits is working-out, and you specifically like to lift heavy weights.

Congrats!

You’re in the heavy-weightlifting niche (sorry for being so straightforward — but, I don’t want to overcomplicate it).

Actually, you belong to multiple niches. Niches that belong to 4 categories:

Please write down at least 3 habits for every category.

Now you may face a different problem, which is to choose a niche between all the +12 different options available that you’ve just discovered.

So, how do you choose the niche & customers that you’ll be serving as long as your business lasts?

You don’t.

Instead, you choose The Evolving Niche.

When I realized that startups required services that I couldn’t provide with my current skills & schedule — I transitioned to the second most common advice about niches:

The perfect niche is you.

This means that instead of choosing a niche to focus on — you will share your interests and attract people like you (same background, problems, goals, fears, etc.).

The truth is that this made me feel confused.

I mean, I like to go out and hang out with friends. But, I don’t feel able to teach people Social Skills — nor I would like to build my business around relationships.

Hopefully, I came up with The Evolving Niche.

The Evolving Niche accepts that you evolve.

Your interests & skills change (maybe in the future, I could even talk about relationships).

So, instead of choosing the perfect niche between one of your interests and limiting yourself to that niche as long as your business lasts — you start with one niche, and you focus your attention on that interest.

Eventually, as you feel that you’ve talked enough about that niche — you evolve and include a new interest in your personal brand without forgetting about your initial interest.

For example, you might start with weightlifting, then you feel that Traditional Cuisine is the best diet.

Thus, you talk about how a weightlifter (you) has seen incredible benefits after experimenting with Traditional Cuisine and forgetting about modern & processed food.

I followed this path.

I started talking about online courses (that’s the reason behind the name Grow Your Classroom – the name of my marketing agency for course creators).

But, eventually, I felt that I could help people beyond online courses. People like coaches, freelancers, creators & influencers who monetize their mind. I mean, people who are paid for what they know and teach, not for their time (people known as Infopreneurs).

This leaded me to an evolution of my brand and business towards the Infopreneurs market.

Now, you may wonder:

How to make that transition?

Especially, when your niche is “chiropractors” and you never felt interest in them — they just seemed like the best option.

I know how much you’ve invested in what seemed like the perfect niche, and you don’t want to lose all of that work, time, energy & money.

Thus, how to make a transition between your customers & the so-called evolving niche.

Well, it’s easy:

You merge your interests with your work.

What does this mean?

Let’s say that you were targeting dentists for your workout programs, but you never felt a passion for helping dentists — they just looked like the most profitable option.

So, how do you merge your interests (working out) with your work (dentists)?

You’ll use your work as a case-study of your interests.

I mean, you’ll share on social media the cool things that you like about fitness, and how you apply these things to your customers (dentists).

As you do this, you’ll experience a huge hidden benefit: Your audience & customers will grow beyond the dentists niche.

Actually, the audience will be usually 5-10x bigger than when you were just sharing “niche content”.

This happens because people crave social proof — so the fact that you show that your work is effective through your dentists’ case-studies is a big advantage on social media — an advantage that sets you apart from 80% of creators.

Eventually, dentists will only be a past chapter on your entrepreneurial journey — and your customers will be people that share your interests, and you actually like to help.