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MVP: Choosing Your Local Niche: The Dos and Don'ts Every Small Business Owner Needs To Know
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You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast, where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in. Hello. Welcome to episode 106. Today we're going to talk about niches. So super fun. So maybe you already have a niche and you are rocking and rolling with that. So if you do, you can still stick around and hang out and maybe you will hear something in a way that you've never heard it before or get a new perspective. But I also just have a lot of people who come to me who don't have niches, but who do want to niche down further and in their local business. So this episode is for you. So I'm going to give you my do's and don'ts today of niching. And these are just going to be some of the most common mistakes that I see people making and things that I see really slowing people down the most and causing them the most stress and drama when choosing their niche. And just notice that I'm saying choosing their niche. I know a lot of people say that I need help finding my niche or I want to find my niche. I just, I hear the term find my niche a lot, as if we're going to go stumble upon it magically in the woods. And I don't think that happens. Niching is a decision, and that's how I want you to think about it. And that's really powerful. It is something 100% in your control. And I think that's what causes a lot of people the most drama when niching or choosing a niche is they see it more as something that happens to them versus it being just a very strategic decision that they make in their business. So we're going to talk about that. And because if you are someone who has dealt with niche drama for a while, and I'm by niche drama, I just mean you've been thinking about a niche for a while or going back and forth in your mind, I want you to leave this episode today feeling empowered, feeling in control, and having made a decision or at least feeling like you have a plan moving forward. Now, niching in your business really just means what you decide to specialize in. It's a section of the population that you decide to market and sell to. It's who you're going to talk to. So, for example, I'm a business coach, but I work specifically with local business owners. So local business is my niche. Or maybe you own a landscaping company and you focus on upscale neighborhoods. So like, you're not doing any landscaping for businesses or any projects under a certain budget. Or maybe a photographer focuses on branding and headshots for other business owners. So that would be their niche. They're not out there taking wedding photos, newborn photos, family portraits, all the things they niche down and specialize in. Branding and headshots for business owners. Like, that's what they're known for. So when I work with my clients inside the localpreneur academy, I. I give them a process to help them become the local go to in their industry. So to me, that's kind of another way to think of niching. It's. It's. What do you want to be known for, who do you want to work with? So. So it could be a bit broader. Maybe it's very specific. So let's just dive into the do's and don'ts and we're just gonna see where you land right now, and we're gonna start with the don'ts. So the first thing I wanna say is don't niche down before you're ready. If you are just starting out in your business, it is okay to get a lot of experience working with a lot of different types of clients before you really find who you like to work with or if there's a specific area within your industry that you like to specialize in. I am a huge Grey's Anatomy fan. I've watched all 20 seasons, multiple times. But on the show, all the surgical interns come into the program knowing that they want to be a surgeon, but they don't know what kind of surgeon. So every show or every day, they just kind of all move around into different specialties. So maybe one day they'll go into peds, and then they'll be in plastics and they'll be in cardio, then they'll be in general, and. And they do this for years to see what they like and what they're good at. So, I mean, this is my experience with the medical world from Grey's Anatomy. I assume it's like this in real life, but, you know, my knowledge stops with Grey's Anatomy. But by the way, I also just want to say, notice I said general surgery. General surgery is totally a niche. People specialize in general surgery. So it's okay if what you do is also more. More general or more broad. You don't have to niche down into something hyper specific. So even in the coaching world, like I'm a very specific type of business coach that works with local business owners, but there are general life coaches, and they help their clients with all aspects of their life from, like, weight loss, relationships, goal setting, money, like, all of it. So deciding to be more general in your industry is also a niche, and it's a decision that you can make and own and totally rock. Okay, so, but let's go back to my Gray's Anatomy example of them exploring, like, all the possibilities. And let's pretend also that you're a photographer and you're just starting out. So if you're going to go the Grey's Anatomy route, maybe you explore doing family portraits, you explore some newborns, you explore some seniors, you explore some weddings. You do all the things until you have enough experience to know what you like and what you don't like, or even like what your true skill sets and what your strengths are like. There's nothing wrong with that. I think sometimes we get in such a hurry to specialize in the beginning that we can end up choosing something that we're not even 100% sold on just because we're in a hurry to be known for something. But you can still make a lot of money doing a lot of different things for a lot of different types of people in the beginning. It's when people specialize too early that they end up changing their mind. And then they have to go back and rebrand and redo all their marketing, redo their messaging, redo their social media, their website, relaunch into the world. Like, redo everything. Then their audience is confused. So I would rather you make the decision to give yourself a certain amount of time in the beginning of your business. Maybe it's a year, maybe it's two years. Like, you get to decide the time is arbitrary, but you get to explore what you enjoy. Okay. The next don't is don't stop making money without a niche. So, like I said, you can still make a lot of money. You can still work with clients without a niche. What I find stops people from making money the most is when they have drama about not having a niche yet. And this typically comes from the thought that they're doing something wrong. That if they haven't specialized in something yet, or if they're not talking to the right people or a certain group of people, or if their social media feels a little unbalanced talking to a variety of people or about a variety of a variety of things right now, they feel like they're doing something wrong or they make Them, they. They make themselves wrong. And what I know to be true is when we feel like we're doing something wrong in our business, we typically freeze. And when we freeze, we stop showing up, we stop marketing, we stop talking to anyone, and then we stop making money. So if you are in this exploratory phase, we'll call it of your business, and you've decided not to niche down intentionally, and you're making that decision consciously, and you're just willing to go out there and work with as many people as possible and make money. Let that be okay. When I was a social media manager, I had clients in the food industry, in the jewelry and makers industry, in the retail industry, wedding industry, politicians, nonprofits. I was all over the place, but I was willing just to go out and make money and explore working with people in all sorts of businesses. And I didn't have any drama about it because I was making money. I was like, oh, you need help? Cool. Like, I can help you. I know exactly what to do. It wasn't until later, once I had all the experience and I really started honing my process, that I niche down and was like, okay, this is exactly who I'm for and what I'm doing. And all of my messaging is going to be geared toward this one thing. I have seen people say that they need to pick their niche and sit in confusion for months or years and they stop making money because of that. And I just don't want you to stop taking action just because you haven't decided on a special, a specialty, or a specific group of people to talk to yet. Just keep showing up, keep meeting people locally, keep offering to help people, even if it feels like it's anyone and everyone right now. Okay, my next don't is when you are ready to niche. Don't take forever to make a decision, and then don't change your mind. So I see this a lot too. People will come to me and they'll say, okay, I think I'm ready to niche down and to start talking to this group of people or to start working with this group of people. But then they want to continue to think about it and they want to go into this testing phase. So earlier I said, don't pick a niche before you're ready, but you get to decide when you're ready. Picking a niche really is just a decision, and you can make a decision within a split second when you know there's a group of people who you can help and you know who they are and where they are. And what to say to them and you know they're willing and able to pay, then you're ready. And I want you to commit to that. You don't have to make it harder than it is. Like your very next social media post can just start talking to those people. It really does get to be that simple. So the other part of this is once you do decide, like I said, you have to commit to your decision. I don't want you to think about it as a testing phase. I want you to commit to it at least a year. And don't treat it as if a test as if it's a test. Treat it as if you're marrying it or going all in on it. I hear people say they want to test it and I don't love this idea. I think it can be just a decision and then you get to work to make it work. If you give yourself a year, this gives you enough time to really settle in, start honing your message, meet more people in the niche, and then make a ton of offers to help them. If you don't give yourself a year, I find people are kind of one foot in, one foot out, and it keeps them in the testing. And your brain will tell you two weeks in that it's a bad idea because your first attempt out, your brain's gonna say, oh, wait, see, no one wants this. This niche doesn't work. Like, let's go back. And that likely just isn't true. You had, when you chose the niche, you had really good reasons for picking it. Your first attempt to talk to the people in the niche or making them an offer may just not have gone the way you wanted, which is okay. And look, by the way, if you want help with this, this is what we do inside the localpreneur academy. We can help you with your messaging, with making offers, and with finding your people and with the just keep going part when it doesn't go as planned when you thought it would. Because like I said, your brain will tell you to go back and to switch niches and to do something different if it doesn't get the instant gratification right out the gate. But don't listen to it. Go back to your original reasons for picking the niche. Show yourself that there are people in that niche, they do exist, and then you just get back to work. Okay, so those are the don'ts, but let's talk about some do's now. And it's going to be a little repetitive, but I might just kind of say it in a little different way now. So the first do is do pick a niche with people who have a clear problem that you are the local solution for, and they're willing to pay for it. So there's three components here. You have to talk to people with a very specific problem. Like, that's the first component. The second component is you have to have a solution to that problem. And the third component is you want this group of people to be willing and able to pay for the solution. So, for example, I chose to focus on local business owners who wanted help reaching more people in their city and bringing in more clients. Like, they're really struggling to do that. They feel really overwhelmed with marketing. A lot of just the general marketing advice that they're seeing isn't really working for them. And. And I have the solution, like, I have a process designed specifically for local business owners that leads them right into more visibility, more local followers, and more clients. And my ideal clients are willing and able to invest in their business and they see the benefit of that. Okay, so the next thing you want to do, the next do is to pick a niche where you clearly know how to find your people. So in other words, you have access to them. You want knowing how to reach your people to feel really doable, like something you can go out and do today. You want to be able to make a connection and make offers today. I find sometimes people pick niches that sound great or, or niches that they would really like to be in, but they don't have any connections to that niche. They don't know anyone in that niche. It's not their network or community. And then they really struggle on how to break into that. Then they end up spending a lot of time spinning in confusion on what to do in their business every day just to meet people. Now, that's not to say that it can't be done or like, don't pick a niche that you don't know anyone or don't have any connections. But if you want my advice or just what I've experienced, it is easier to choose a niche that you do have connections to or that you do know how to go out and meet someone today in that niche or in that community. So for example, one of my clients inside the LocalPreneur Academy is a personal stylist, and she niched down to work with military spouses. And she is a military spouse. So she knows exactly how to find these people. She's already part of their community. She knows exactly where they are online and offline and how to reach them. So it just makes her marketing and reaching her people every single day so much easier. Now on that same note, my next do is to pick a niche where you have expertise. Pick a niche where you can show up as an expert, where you can show up as that local go to person. This is going to make your messaging so much easier if you know your client very deeply. So for example, when I decided to niche and become a local marketing coach, this came after 14 years of having my own local business and growing my own local audience and after six years of being a social media manager. So I had the experience. I felt like I could talk about my clients problems oftentimes more clearly than they could. I understood my client from a being my own client for so long, but also from being part of that community and being around local business owners all the time. So I was talking to one of my clients the other day and she's a virtual assistant and right now she is a general virtual assistant. And she was talking about how she's really wanting to niche down to Realtors. And one of the things I asked her is as we were going through this process is if she had any connections to realtors and and if she knew enough about real estate that she could talk about it in her marketing, like could she talk well enough about the problems realtors are facing on a daily basis and position herself as the local solution to help them? This is so important. If you don't understand your client or the industry or the population enough, it's going to feel like an uphill. An uphill b y'. All. My accent comes out sometimes it's gonna feel like an uphill battle figuring out how to talk to them and how to explain their problem. Honing your messaging is already a skill set, so you make it easier for yourself when you pick a niche where you already truly, deeply know the industry and the people and how to talk to them. So I do think that is just a really important prerequisite when choosing a niche or a segment of people that you want to talk to. Okay, the final do is do go find people in your niche and start talking to them every single day. If you know who your people are, where they are online or offline, and you know what their problem is and you know the solution that you offer and you know that they're willing and able to pay for it, your job is to be out there every single day meeting them and telling them that you can help them over and over, as many people as you can every single day. That's your one big do every day. Go meet people. Go make offers. Okay. I hope that was helpful. I would love to help you with any and all of this inside the LocalPreneur Academy. This is where you get my five step process to help you stand out as that local go to person, reach more people in your city, grow your local following, create local, go to content and to sell more confidently so you can bring in more clients. You can click the link in the show notes to learn more. To join, get instant access. I would love, love, love, love to do this work with you this year. If niching down or talking to your people or finding your people is something that you are struggling with, come join us and let's clean it up. Let's make it simple, let's make it doable so you can start talking to the right people and just bringing them in. All right my friends, have a great week and I'll talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesleypressnel.com and I'll see you inside.