Let's talk about niching. I'm a little sceptical...

I mentioned back in my five strengths article that I was a little sceptical about niching… today I wanted to talk about that a bit more.

The amount of creative articles I’ve read when improving my freelance business that stress on the point of niching is astronomical. It’s hard to find one without at least a mention of it. But like I said, I’m a bit sceptical. 

The articles talk about how people are going to put you into a box and by niching down you’re choosing what box they put you into. But what if you don’t like that box in a month or two? They say that it’s fine to change but it doesn’t seem that easy… surely if your audience is following you for something specific they’ll want that to continue. A select proportion of your audience will be following you for you, but that can’t be said for the rest of them.

Especially as I don’t even know what I want my box to be in the first place.

People like Tom Ross and Sean Wes say it takes time to find your niche but you shouldn’t shy away from it. According to Tom, there is a stage before you find your ‘sweet spot’ and it’s okay if that stage takes years, as long as you’re working on it.

That’s cool. That’s probably where I am but is there no in-between? 

I’m curious to know what you think about the whole idea of niching? Is it still niching if you’re only niching slightly? The idea Sean and Tom talk about is niching so deep that you should be funnelling down to the tip of a pizza. The pizza theory is split into four phases, the idea is that each phase gets you closer and closer to that niche spot.

Phase one seems to be mainly experimentation, the early stages of your career, where you’re trying out lots of different things and seeing what may possibly work for you.

Phase two is figuring out what works, and going deeper into these areas to slowly start understanding what your audience wants and needs from you, this getting to the ‘sweet spot’.

Phase three is developing this market, getting your business shaped into what you enjoy to do and what others want and need from you.

Phase four is the tip, it’s the special place that’s unique for everyone. Check out this podcast episode where Tom Ross goes into the theory in more detail. According to Tom, he hasn’t reached phase four himself yet so don’t worry if you’re still in phase one or two. 

Going forward

Thinking of niching as ‘choosing work that aligns with your goals’ rather than ‘I’m only going to do black and white chalk quotes for life’ is a better way for me to move forward personally. I want to work on locking down the goals I want to achieve in the future, and the aspirations I want my business to thrive on. That should help me at least on the journey of finding my niche. 

I know I want to help and teach creatives, that seems like a greater start than any. But I can definitely go deeper towards that tip of the pizza. I’ve read the phrase “educating from experience” somewhere (unfortunately I can’t remember where but if someone knows please let me know) and I feel like that is something I want to focus on. But, I don’t want to just educate. I want to help creatives organise themselves, motivate themselves, while still being able to create myself. 

Is that leaving myself too generalised? I don’t know but I’ll let you know when I reach further into phase two!

- Sophie

P.S Sorry if I’ve made you hungry from all this pizza talk!

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