What’s the right niche for your business?

As someone who runs a niche business myself, concentrating solely on the financial advice sector, I’m a real believer in the potential to run a niche financial advice business. I’m also aware of lots of financial advice businesses that are pursuing niche strategies.

I’ve written before about how niche strategies can make your life so easy. When you build expertise in a specific target market, you can then market your services to this group with a laser like focus. You have the opportunity to stand apart from the crowd by establishing your credentials as the specialist within that target market. And having that deep knowledge of a client sector and constantly talking directly to that sector enables you to build a deep and valuable connection with them.

One of the biggest challenges that advisers have when going down this route is to identify the best niche for themselves. I personally don’t consider a focus on business owners as a niche strategy as the group is simply too broad to be considered niche.

So how do you identify the best niche for you?

 

Who do you enjoy working with?

This is as good a place to start as any! Working with people you like will result in greater effort from you and it makes your working life so much more enjoyable and rewarding. When I established StepChange, I knew I wanted to work with the financial adviser community. I was fully aware of the value you add to your clients and I wanted to be part of that journey. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to wake up every day and dread conversations with clients that you have no time for….

Of course you need to be confident that the niche you would like to work with is big enough, the chosen target market must be capable of supporting your business at the level you want it to. This requires research and groundwork before you commit to specialising within your chosen sector.

 

Can you add increased value?

Once you know who you want to work with… now how can you stand apart from the crowd? This is typically going to be through deeper and more specialised knowledge of your chosen sector. As an example, let’s assume you have a real passion for the entertainment industry and decide to target freelancers who work within it. To stand apart from other advisers, you need to understand the nuances of this sector better than other advisers – how people in the sector are paid, the nature of contracts, their working environment and unique challenges and what are their specific pain points. When you understand their lives better than other advisers, now you have an opportunity to stand apart from the crowd and become the go-to person for that sector.

 

How can you demonstrate that value?

It’s all well and good knowing who you want to work with and building the expertise in the sector, one of the biggest challenges is establishing your presence as the best adviser for your chosen sector. This is where the hard work really starts, as there is no single silver bullet to demonstrating that value. Instead it’s going to come from many small activities executed well and delivered consistently over time.

Testimonials from existing clients within your chosen target market, case studies of work you completed that demonstrate your specialist knowledge of the sector and an online presence that speaks directly to your target market. These then need to be supported with a regular stream of fresh content that speaks to your target market about their specific challenges – maybe in the form of blogs, videos, podcasts or webinars etc.

 

What’s your route to your target market?

Then you need to build your presence within your target market. Of course, this will include working from the “bottom up”, one client at a time. However, you also should be looking at getting out in front at an industry level too – this might be through partnerships with other sector specific professional firms (accountants who specialise in the sector, agencies etc.), industry bodies, trade associations, sector publications and any centre of influences within the sector. Building links with them takes time, effort and patience, but if done well it will deliver strong dividends over time.

 

Does a niche strategy rule out other clients?

The bottom line is, no it doesn’t. A niche strategy enables you to narrow your focus in terms of the clients that you are going after, but it doesn’t prevent other clients from outside your niche approaching you about your services. From my own experience, people from outside the financial adviser community have approached me over the years to determine if I’d be willing to work with them. You are then in the fortunate position of deciding who you want to work with.

 

I’m a fan of niche businesses. Do you know who you want to work with?