How to Pick a Niche | EP 186

The first thing I want to talk to you about is I get it, like being a generalist, it feels safe, but being a generalist makes your business invisible because trying to be everything to everyone or all things to all people and trying to take on all these different types of projects and work, it's one of the most expensive mistakes you can make in your business.

When you do a bit of everything, when you're a generalist, like you sound like everybody else, you don't stand out and like the clients, in the market looking at you and all the other alternatives out there.

They can't differentiate you and they can't pick a reason why they should choose you.

Because the problem with generalists is they get compared together or against each other on one thing, which is price.

And being compared to everyone else out there in the marketplace based on price is a race you don't want to win.

It's a race to the bottom.

It makes most consultancies not profitable at all.

And the projects are just not fun.

So the race to the bottom is not a race that you want to win.

I get it though, like in your head, this fear of niching, instead of like all these projects that you could be facing or focusing on, you're gonna pick just this section over here.

There's a real fear in your head that like I'm turning away work or I'm saying no to work.

But the problem with that approach is, and like, yes, you are saying no to work, but you have to get clear on the work that you wanna do and the work that you don't wanna do and be okay saying no to work.

Because being a generalist and being vague in the marketplace and oh yeah, we can help you with that and oh yeah, I guess we could probably do that as well and oh yeah, not really a wheelhouse but we'll figure it out.

Being vague, being a generalist means less work actually finds you in the first place because you don't stand out.

Specialists, on the other hand, they get referred more easily, they stand out in the marketplace, it's very clear what specialists do in the areas or the things that they niche in, and they get referred more easily because people in the marketplace know exactly who you are and who to send your way.

So the more specific you are, the more niched you are, the more money you can charge, the more valuable you are to your client's world because you're a specialist in that space, and the more memorable you become.

You become known as the go-to person for that space by not only clients in your space but also the other consultancies that you work with because they're gonna refer work to you because you're known as the go-to person in that space.

So I want you to stop and think about, if you're constantly competing on fees, if you're constantly justifying your fees to your clients, if you're constantly getting beaten down based on price, stop and ask yourself, is that because I'm a generalist that nobody actually knows what I do and what place I have in the market? Okay, so the second thing I want to talk to you about is, what actually is a niche? How do we actually reframe what a niche is in your head so that you don't, well, one, pick the wrong niche for you and your business, or two, end up stuck just staying as a generalist.