Niching is a frequent dilemma for so many business owners. How do you choose a niche? How deep should you go? What if your niche doesn’t work? How do I start saying “no” to clients outside my niche? All of these questions seem to regularly hit my inbox. Niching is so important to the success of your business that I dedicated three lessons to niching in the “Selling Creative Services” course in my freelance course suite.
A couple years ago I began to understand “niching” in a way that I wish I would have grasped while I was building my agency. If only I would have realized this concept sooner! But all is not lost, because I get it now and it has impacted my “post agency” business ventures in a very positive way. I think of niching as a “funnel.” In fact, I call it “The Niche Funnel” and here is how it works.
The Niche Funnel
On the top of the funnel is a “broad niche” and on the bottom of the funnel is a “narrow niche.” The broader your niche is, the harder it is to market your product or service. The narrower your niche is, the easier it is to market. Simple, right? Let’s dig deeper.
Your business can niche in a variety of different ways:
Next comes the important consideration. How narrow should you niche down the funnel? In the example below you may niche as a website design and development business for businesses with a $20,000 – $30,000 budget. Is this deep enough to make marketing easy? Are you capable of providing that service? Do you have access to those types of clients? All of these questions should be part of your niching consideration. And remember, you don’t need to niche in every category.
Be careful how deep you niche! Niching too deep can reduce your potential client pool to a point where it cannot sustain a business. For example, the agency below provides Fortune 500 skateboard companies based in India with a budget of $50k+. Hmmm… good luck with that business.
Multiple Niches and Niche Experiments
As you experiment with niches, you may find that a specific niche begins to rise to the top. You provide great service to the niche. Your clients are happy. You’re making plenty of money in that one niche. When this happens, you may consider abandoning the other niches you are experimenting with and going “all in” on the one that is working best. But again, as I stated earlier, it all takes time, patience, and experimentation.
I hope this helps you look at niching a little differently than you might have in the past. Give your business time. You’ll get it sorted out. And, as they say, “There are riches in the niches.” Go find them.*******
I continue to receive amazing feedback from students of my Freelance with Janda courses. Thank you!
“Before taking Freelance with Janda, I actually spent a ton of money on another business courses where I didn’t really see the results or get my money’s worth. After doing the first module for free, I was hooked and paid for the rest of the course right then and there. Michael has a way of speaking where he makes you feel like you can do this! Every module is in-depth where he breaks it down for you, walks you through with examples, and solidifies the lesson with stories from his own experience. Originally when I got into freelancing, I was like a headless chicken trying to figure out why my business wasn’t growing. One of the major things that the course helped me with was learning how to focus, niching down (and actually how to do it), and actionable advice on how to find, nurture, and deal with clients. Wherever you are in your business–thinking about it, stuck in a rut, or scaling, I think everyone has a lot to learn from this course!” – Crystal Kam, Visual Designer, http://www.crystalkam.ca
“Enrolling in this course was one of the best decisions I could have made for my freelance career. The price is a steal for all the resources, knowledge and guidance you receive. I was pleasantly surprised with all the detailed templates too! Before this course I was overwhelmed trying to figure out everything on my own, but now I have the ultimate guide!” – Samantha Esposito,CEO of Creativ Wings, http://www.creativwings.com
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COURSE: Freelance with Janda
The Ultimate Business Course for Creative Freelancers and Agency Owners
This six suite course bundle covers everything from finding clients to managing your creative business. It includes 40+ hours of video lessons, proposal templates, contract templates, pricing systems and strategies, project management templates, and much, much more! These courses are literally EVERYTHING you need to run your creative business profitably and enjoyably! Learn or Enroll: www.freelancewithjanda.com
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BOOK: The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing
Learn: http://www.michaeljanda.com/psychopricing
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BOOK: Burn Your Portfolio
Learn: http://www.michaeljanda.com/burnyourportfolio
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FREE: Download the New Project Interview & New Project Analysis
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http://www.bizbudspodcast.com
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