“All I know is what I’m good at! When it comes to anything else like, ‘What can I leverage in my business?’ I instantly get frustrated at the thought because it’s all such a blur.”
If you can relate to being in this situation, you’re not alone.
Quite recently, someone I know shared their interest in finding a way to generate more momentum around the referrals they were already getting. They felt like it just wasn’t enough, and felt stumped figuring out what could be done to solve the problem. With all their jobs earning upwards of $80,000.00, I enquired as to their reason and they simply said, “More money.”
It seems to always boil down to more money minus the decisions needed to be made in order to get there. But when you offer a service, amongst other things, your profitability is also connected to your expertise; the one thing you’re good at doing for a certain type of clientele desiring a specific result, commonly referred to as a niche.
For most of us encountering niching for the first time, it’s uncomfortable to say the least. There is always a fear of losing the crappy clients you do serve but secretly want nothing to do with. But for those curious about niching, the feeling of being unaware of what you can leverage from the list of services you provide is where the process of niching becomes overwhelming. You’re approaching it wrong if you’re feeling that way. Niching has to be based on an unmet need for it to work! You’re not niching for niching sake. Therefore, an understanding of the intention behind doing it must be present, so it can be done with the confidence that specific expectations would be achieved.
Small service businesses typically don’t have the luxury of a big budget to invest in advertising as a way to stay top of mind. So niching is used instead as a way to quickly increase your visibility by becoming highly valuable amongst a small group of buyers. But, it only works by being very specific about what you do for whom and the benefit it provides. Ironically, that’s the part most small service business owners run from, yet they want visibility.
What’s the point of being general if it doesn’t shed light on the value of your business, or it leaves you with little profit to show for your work?
Changing who you solve a problem for to reflect a more profitable income is one example of being specific, but there are other ways to be specific. I niched my design services with The One-Page by offering a specific approach to getting online for local clients.
With buyers misguidedly investing in visual branding on the foundation that “a great design will make me money” as if their clients are saying “Oh I want to hire you because of your website,” I saw an opportunity in the market to meet a need that wasn’t being met, which set my feet on the path to niching.
For clients, it’s a small step to a bigger need, but the beauty is in how simple it is to understand, recall and share. So while no one can fault you for wanting to boost awareness for your business, it’s pointless if there’s nothing specific to call awareness to.
At the same time, if you’re already generating referrals it means you’re doing something people are easily taking notice of, committing to memory and sharing with others who might be in need of that service. And by virtue of my experience, you can choose to understand what that is, claim it, nurture it and watch it garner you the results you seek rather than pull things from thin air and frustrate yourself in the process.
👇Use the social links below to share my article if you liked it
Comments