In today’s Q&A episode, we have a question from Shannon about whether you can have multiple niches.
This is a very consistent and common question that I get asked, so I definitely want to make sure I give you a full explanation of my answer.
Let’s dive on in!
Our question today comes from the amazing Shannon from Welcome Lasting Love. You can find her on her website welcomelastinglove.com.
Shannon says:
“I have a question. I know a strong niche is the most important thing – I have a strong niche and I know what I am doing in my business. However, I am excited about 2 other niches also! Would you suggest I establish myself fully in the first niche before also putting energy into the others?”
This is a very good question, and it’s a very smart question as well.
Ultimately, Shannon, the answer to the question of whether you can have multiple niches is a big resounding YES.
You can absolutely have multiple niches, and it is totally up to you as to whether you decide to focus down on one or whether to split your attention between multiple niches.
However, is it SMART to have multiple niches? The answer to that is generally no, especially not when you’re first starting out.
What you want to do is ensure that you have a solid financial foundation and that you’ve got great momentum with your first niche FIRST. That is the first thing that we want to do.
If you decide not to focus down on one niche and instead split your business between multiple niches, then what’s going to end up happening is that you’re going to slow down the momentum in all of those spaces.
One of the things people think when they decide they’re going to focus on two niches is that when they jump from niche to niche, they think they’re working on each one and that each one is growing and growing. And then at a certain point, they decide to start focusing on niche two, so niche one just sits and waits for them.
That’s actually not what happens.
As you shift from one niche to the other, what you’re doing is having that growth and momentum stagnate and then start to fall in each of those niches.
For most people (especially in the early stages of business), a decision to split your focus between two or more niches ends up slowing down growth in all of them.
What we’re looking for is to hit a tipping point.
Your business, when you really focus down on one niche, will eventually hit a tipping point where it’s not as much energy in to create the money out.
You’ll start to see things being able to systemise more effectively, you’ll get more and more referrals through, and your audience will almost feel like it’s growing on autopilot.
If you’re not at that stage of business yet with one niche, then splitting your focus between two niches or even more niches is going to slow down the momentum everywhere.
What I recommend is:
1. Pick the one niche you want to really focus on
2. Get very consistent with that
3. Get it to the tipping point…
4. Then double down for a year
For a year (six months minimum, but for a year if possible), double down and enjoy being in a business where it’s got its own momentum, where energy in seems to be multiplied in results out without you having to put more energy in, and where you can start to systemise and refine, enjoy being known as the go-to person for that particular niche and just ride that wave of momentum.
I have a really beautiful example to share with you when it comes to this decision to stay in one niche.
Back in 2017, I realised that I had split myself between three different niches.
I was focused on:
- Working with startups
- Helping people with leveraging and launching
- Helping people to get beyond six-figures and then into multiple six-figures
Those were the three specific niches that I was working with in my business.
At that time, those three niches had kind of developed organically. But when I reviewed my year of 2017, most of my business income came from startups… and guess which niche I had given the least amount of attention to for that entire year? Startups.
What had happened was my work in startups with the Take Off program and helping people get their business off the ground, had hit that tipping point, and really was creating a lot of great momentum on its own.
In the whole of 2017, I did not launch the Take Off program (my signature program for startups) once. Not once.
Yet I’d made over six-figures in sales of the Take Off program without giving it any attention!
I’d spent a lot of time and energy on my other two niches. I would say 70-80% of my marketing strategy was focused on talking about launches, courses, memberships, masterminds, scaling strategies and pushing beyond the six-figure mark in your business, and yet it accounted for less than 20% of my income in my business.
It’s the 80/20 rule.
Woman overwhelmed by multiple niches in business start-up
What I decided to do was, instead of continuing to keep myself spread thin, I would focus 80% of my marketing and sales strategies on startup and promoting the Take Off program. By doing that, for the last three years, I’m still in that space where 80% of my marketing activities are focused on startup and focused on helping people get into the Take Off program (if it’s the right fit for them), and my business income stopped stagnating and has just gone from strength to strength.
At the same time, I’ve reduced my average working hours in my business from 30-35 hours a week, to 15-20 hours a week.
My income has absolutely skyrocketed, and my time going into my business has come down.
There are a bunch of different factors that go into that.
I’ve worked on refining the way that I work with my team. I haven’t grown my team since 2017 (in fact, I spend less on team expenses now in 2021 than I did in 2017) but I’ve decided to work slightly differently with my team and I’ve definitely learned some things about how to best work with them and what the right fit is for having a team around me.
But I know that the main reason why my income continues to flourish and grow, despite the fact that I’m putting less and less time into my business, is because I’m focusing on one niche.
People do come to me all the time and say that they’re beyond startup (and I do have a course coming out where I’ll be working in that space again), but I made a commitment to myself that I would not jump into that second and third niche with my marketing activities until such a time as I really got the Take Off program on its own trajectory and I stay in the good stuff for a nice extended period of time.
One factor that’s on my radar in terms of what milestones I want to hit is that I want to have a six-figure launch of the Take Off program.
I got close – I got $99,404 (not that I’m counting HAHA) in one of my launches of the Take Off program, but I also recognise that I did that at a time where I had had a lot of list growth working on ads, and then I put a lot of time and energy into that launch.
It was a very high energy launch for me in terms of me putting a lot of time and energy in.
I want to actually streamline that launch so that I can have a six-figure launch of the Take Off program, and also in that launch, just show up in a very specific and measured way.
I still haven’t achieved that, and until I achieve that, I’m not going to go and jump into working in another niche – especially not reducing my marketing efforts in speaking to my startup niche in order to go and speak to a more advanced niche.
Even when I do first launch my course on creating and launching group programs, I will only do it to my warmest audience.
For the first launch, I’ll do a soft launch with a no-brainer price, and run that program live the first time around so that I really nail it… BUT I will not let that distract me from growing and nurturing my audience in the startup niche, because that niche is where I want to focus my energy and attention, and I know the more I focus there, the more money I make in less time.
I wanted to use myself as an example, because I know I have role-modelled the other way in the past where I have had multiple niches. I also know that my business would have grown faster if I went back and whispered in that Tash’s ear and told her to stick with one niche for a little while longer, really focus down on her startups, nailing that, getting that to be a seven-figure part of her business every year, and THEN she can play with those other niches.
In summary, to answer your question Shannon, yes – 100% you can work with multiple niches…
BUT I want you to pay attention to what is driving your desire to move into multiple niches at this stage of your business.
Is it that you’ve really seen it through with the first niche and it’s working on autopilot, and you really feel like it’s scaling fast? Or could it be that there may be some underlying fear that if you don’t focus on the other niche then someone else will focus on it and you’ll miss out? Or is it a fear that if you don’t have multiple niches, then you’re never going to get to the point where you can make sustainable income for your business?
If that’s the case, we want to actually fix the problem with the existing niche and make sure you can grow and focus on that side of your business, and bring in sustainable, amazing income in your business. It’s totally possible.
For most people, the desire to move into multiple niches comes from fear rather than from abundance and a solid mindset and strategy.
For most people, they think they need to move into multiple niches because they don’t have the strategy in order to actually make their existing niche work, or they don’t have the mindset piece in that they’re letting fear drive that decision making.
If that’s the case for you, then let’s fix those two things – the mindset and the strategy around your existing niche – scale that up, hang out in the good stuff for a year, and then move into another potential niche once you’ve got that rocking on autopilot and it’s scaling and you’ve gone well beyond that initial tipping point.
If you’ve been reading this and thinking that you’re not sure if you’re niched enough or if you’re trying to serve multiple niches, I have a great free resource for you.
It’s my Nail Your Niche training.
Get instant access to this free training so that you can make sure you’re focusing on one niche, ensuring that it’s the right niche for you to get started in your business, getting to that tipping point, and starting to make amazing money.
Thank you so much, Shannon, for your question.
If you have been reading today’s episode and you’ve had a bit of a lightbulb moment or you’ve got a follow up question, just come over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know you’ve been reading episode number 267 and we can continue the conversation there.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
