For as long as I have been in the design field, I always designed for any industry that came my way. Until about 2 months ago, during an online business course I took with Marie Forleo, I decided to find my niche. Finding my niche was part of the first module in this course and it was one of the hardest things I have had to do with my business. The module was dedicated to finding your ICA – Ideal Customer Avatar so we could understand and get into the shoes of who we were doing business for. To tell you the truth, initially, I tried to get around it by saying I service “small business owners”… LOL… Absolute FAIL. My mentor quickly got me back on track and I decided to go with restaurants. Restaurants have always been a niche I have been interested in. It was always exciting to work with mouth watering pictures and feel the need for a great looking website. Niching is by far one of the best things I have done for my business. Here are a few pros and cons:
Pros
- Niching is great for advertising because it is easier and cheaper to target the right audience.
- Niching also allows you to learn the ins and outs for one industry in order to give the best possible product.
- It decreases the tedious and time-consuming research process that goes into tackling each design project. For the most part, you’ve already done the work and you know the needs and wants of the industry; you know what works and what doesn’t.
Cons
- It’s scary as hell! I say this because there is a risk involved since you are basically shrinking your customer pool.
- It really does take some time to get acquainted with your niche and penetrate into the industry.
What are your experiences with niching? Would love to hear your thoughts!
