Should you niche down? Yes, for sure! But what does it even mean?
In this article, I’ll tell you what it means to niche down and why you want to do it as a freelancer. I’ll come back in another post to talk about how to do it.
Let’s get right to it!
What is a niche?
A niche is a small, targeted area of a product or service.
If you were to use doctors as an example, a general practitioner is someone who serves many people. But a cardiac specialist is someone who focuses on and serves a much smaller, more focused subset of people.
Why would you want to niche down?
To say you are a “Freelancer” or “Virtual Assistant” could mean any number of things. Like seriously, hundreds! No, thousands!
But if you say that you’re a “Customer Experience Expert”, that shows a narrowed focus as to what kind of service you provide. That’s your niche – customer service!
In this article, I talk about what you should (or shouldn’t) call yourself. Finding your niche isn’t exactly the same as finding a better name to call yourself. But if you’re thinking along the same lines, you’re going to find your niche.
When you niche down, you are no longer a general virtual assistant. You have a narrowed focus, and your expertise in a subject matter increases. And so do the rates you can command!
By narrowing your focus, it helps you find better clients, because you’re looking for people who specifically want the thing that you do. And it will also help them find you!
This is an awesome article that I read on the topic of niching down. Brennan Dunn actually reviews a book he read, written by Philip Morgan. He goes into further details about the benefits of choosing a niche.
How do you find your niche?
This deserves a whole blog post. But just to get you started, think about what you like to do.
Let’s use customer service as our example again. Any business with customers needs customer service. But, is there a specific industry you want to serve?
I, for example, have a background in manufacturing, so I would enjoy servicing manufacturers or builders. If you have experience in the medical field, that might be your niche.
So you’re thinking: what do I like to do, and who do I want to do it for?