Finding Your Niche
Finding Your Niche
One of the best pieces of advice that I received is "find your niche in your industry. When you start off you want to serve everyone because let's be real - you want to make money and you want to make money fast. When you serve everyone, you serve no-one.
By finding your niche you are able to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and you will attract the clients that you dream of working with. Think about it this way - when you need to replace windows in your house are you more apt to hire a general contractor who builds homes, or are you going to hire a company who makes custom windows and installs them too? By being an expert in your field you build trust, respect and a healthy relationship with your clients right from the start.
Offer services and products you are passionate about.
What is something that you have always enjoyed doing, or something you are passionate about and constantly want to know more about? You know those things that you love learning about that gets you ridiculously excited and you cannot stop digging around for more information because you cannot get enough. Or is there is something that you happen to do each day or on a regular basis that you love doing that gives you joy? Finding a niche and having it being something that you are passionate about will make it that much better - in the sense of being an expert and also by simply loving what you are doing.
By finding a niche you will also begin to attract your ideal clients. You know that feeling when you look forward to working with someone and know that they respect and look forward to your advice? That feeling will happen when you work with your ideal client, working on projects that you love and are finally excited about.
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For me, that is working within the wedding industry. During the wedding season, here in Wisconsin, my main focus is creating custom wedding stationery for those couples that understand the value of beautiful stationery that was created just for them and their big day. And that has actually bled over into my branding side of my business. I love working with businesses and their branding primarily who are in the wedding industry. Don't get me wrong - I have worked with businesses who are not in the wedding industry and have truly enjoyed it but there is just something special when the wedding industry is tied in.
What are your strengths?
It seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? Focus on the area that you excel and laser focus in on that, right? Unfortunately, I see it too often where people look at others in their industry and fall into the comparison trap and start to build their business based off of someone else's because... well... it's working for them. They lose sight of their own strengths and fall further away from them.
Sit down and write down a list of things that you excel at, and build your business around those strengths. Are you a photographer and kill it when it comes to taking images of products or creating branded images for entrepreneurs but dread taking pictures of people? Why would you focus on family or wedding photography if it's not something you were particularly good at and didn't enjoy as much as branded images? Or maybe you enjoy both, but instead of making them so separate you would combine the two and do branding photography for people that are needing head shots + branded/product images so that every single aspect of their brand is cohesive.
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Find a need.
Ok, let's get real here for a minute.
There needs to be a genuine need for your niche if you expect it to thrive. Find a need within your industry, one that doesn't have a lot of solutions currently out there and build off of that need.
Ask your audience what is something that they struggle with and listen. If your ideal client is a blogger ask them what is something that they have a hard time with, something that they wish they didn't have to worry about, something that they would be willing to invest in, in order to make their job easier. Maybe it's creating branding graphics, or branding their social media platforms. Listen to what they are saying, read in between the lines and find a solution that will rock their socks off!
Once you are able to sit down and figure these things out you will create a niche that motivates you, and makes the job more enjoyable every single day. By focusing on creating something you're passionate about, playing on your strengths, and finding a need you have an amazing opportunity to take your business to the next level.
Are you needing help to establish a niche, or interested in taking your brand to next level?
Let's chat - I'd love to work with you!
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Big thank you to our guest blogger
Lindsay McNierney
Hi, I’m Lindsay McNierney. I am a stationery, brand and website designer based out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I am a wife to an incredible and supportive man, and a mother to two crazy littles. I am a wine and chocolate lover, and a latte addict.
