Un-Niching Your Business: Should you ever go broader in your business? And how to know when it’s time to do that

Is it really true that the riches are in the niches—and that the smaller the niche, the better? There may be times when your business could benefit from accessing a larger niche. So, in today's episode, I am sharing how you can know that it's time to go broader in your business.

– The importance of understanding your total addressable market and where you business is positioned within that.
– Why having a bigger market is not necessarily better (unless your business outgrows a smaller niche).
– How having a really specific niche to start with can help you to make those initial waves.
– Why your niche *will* inevitably change over time and how to navigate that.
– The relevance of market demand and its role in expanding your niche.
– How un-niching your “who” (upstream, downstream and horizontally) as well as what you sell can help you to serve a broader audience.

 

Today we're talking about unleashing your business. Now, I've talked on this podcast a lot about niching down. But today I'm talking about the opposite, taking your niche and actually going a little bit broader. I'm talking about whether this is something that you should ever do and how to know if you are at that point when you need to, and also some ways that you can start to unleash your business without losing traction and growth.

Now we're told that the riches are in the niches. But is this always true? Like is there ever a time to expand the niche that you serve with your business? I have had a lot of experience with niching down and then unleashing my business. 

 

How I niched down my business:

I actually started out as a marketing consultant for wellness brands, and I was growing this to be a marketing agency. So my niche was wellness brands and then over time after I launched this podcast, I became a bit more of a marketing educator, I suppose is one way to put it and I realised that I was being a bit more of a generalist at this point in time. Like I wasn't just serving these wellness brands I was now talking to basically anyone who had a business online, right?

Even e-commerce businesses at this point in time, and through the podcast, through a bunch of courses that I created, I didn't really have any particular niche. I didn't really have any focus as to who I was creating the episodes for, who I was creating my offers for, and as a result, I had a lot of people who would, firstly, they would come to me for the free stuff.

And then they would go and look for the expert when it came to learning. So they'd come to me for the free episodes about Facebook ads and then when it came to actually learning about Facebook ads, they wouldn't buy my course about Facebook ads. They would go to the person who specialised in Facebook ads and learn from them.

Back in 2018, I sat down with a business coach and did a strategy session and I sat down with her and I said, oh, I don't know, like what? What's my niche? Like I want to Launch a course about email marketing. I want to Launch one about Pinterest marketing. I want to Launch one about Instagram marketing, but I don't know what my niche is. And she said to me, I think your niche might be launching because you love launching, but nobody else does.

And I was like, huh, that is such a good point and because such a huge part of launching and Launch strategy actually draws on marketing strategy and sales strategy, this was such a perfect little niching down for me. So I did niche down. I niched into Launch strategy for digital product creators, and I was in that niche for a good three years before I realised that there was actually so much more that I could help my audience with.

I'd grown quite a large audience over this time period because I've got a podcast. I've been consistently doing this for three years now, and I realised there's so many other things that I can help my audience with outside of just teaching them how to Launch. So that was when I then sat down with my bis bestie and we did a brand strategy session brainstorming what the future or what the next iteration of my business would look like, and that was where we landed on the next, I guess, unleashing of my business, where I went from being a Launch strategist for digital product creators to being an online business strategist for other online business owners because through building my own business, through my own experience prior to starting in business, in the corporate world, through all of the marketing things I've learned through everything that I've learned over the last seven years since I started my first business.

I have so many other ways that I can help other business owners outside of just Launch strategy, and that is why I chose to unleash. 

 

The importance of understanding your total addressable market (TAM) and where your business is positioned within that.

So let's talk a little bit about when you might want to unleash now to understand niching and unleashing. You first need to understand the concept of TAM: Total addressable market, which is the total market demand for a product or a service.

And it's really easy to think that if you pick a bigger market, you are going to make more sales. But when you have a bigger niche, it's actually really hard to reach people. It's harder to reach people with a big broad niche when you don't have a massive budget like Spotify or Apple or one of those big companies that are trying to reach the general public and it's much easier when you're starting out to stand out in a really small niche and then grow over time. 

 

Why having a bigger market is not necessarily better (unless your business outgrows a smaller niche).

So when you're starting out, it's really a great idea to start with a specific niche because as Seth Gordon says, it's easier to make waves in a swimming pool than it is to make waves in an ocean.

Now, if you are starting out and you're early on in your business and you are struggling to make sales at this stage, it's not because your niche is too small. More often than not, it's the other way around where your niche is actually too broad, and the reason you are struggling to reach people is because it's not really resonating with anyone in particular.

You're trying to compete against all of these other brands that are going for this other large market rather than trying to build up your name, build up credibility, build up an audience in one small swimming pool first, and then move to the next one. 

 

How having a really specific niche to start with can help you to make those initial waves.

As your business starts to grow, your niche will probably change over time and this isn't a bad thing. This is a sign that you are growing the niche that you choose for your business. It doesn't have to be forever. And I see so many business owners when they're starting out agonising over who their niche should be without really thinking about, hey, it's okay if it changes over time.

 

Why your niche *will* inevitably change over time and how to navigate that.

It's normal for it to change over time, and it can all be changed quite easily. So as you start to serve more and more people in the market that you are in, you might at some point get to a ceiling where you have outgrown this total market demand and you might need to expand who you serve or how you serve them.

And you know, if your business has grown from when you first chose that niche and you found that you have hit the ceiling, there aren't enough people in your market to serve, then that's a sign that maybe your total addressable market is a little bit too small for your business. 

 

The relevance of market demand and its role in expanding your niche.

So some different ways to unleash your business. Now, if you have hit that ceiling and you're thinking, okay, I've hit all of the people who are going to buy from me, how do I unleash my business without just trying to be for the general public? 

 

How un-niching your “who” (upstream, downstream and horizontally) as well as what you sell can help you to serve a broader audience.

You can unleash by who you serve, and you can unleash by what you sell.

Now, when you unleash by who you serve, you can go upstream. You can go downstream, or you can go horizontally. Upstream, let's say that you are currently working with business owners. Let's say you are me and I'm working with online business owners. Upstream would be then trying to sell to software companies who sell to online business owners.

Downstream is the other way. So let's say that I had clients who run nutrition businesses, downstream would be picking the general public, selling to the general public who have a need for nutrition advice. Horizontal unleashing is when you start to go for a complimentary audience. So let's say I've been doing social media management for podcasters, this would look like me now doing social media management for course creators or nutritionists. So same offer but a different audience, different niche of person. 

And then the other way is by what you sell. So let's say, for example, I currently do Instagram management for podcasters. Another way to unleash by what I sell would be TikTok management for podcasters.

So, upstream, downstream, horizontally, or what you sell. Those are four different ways that you can unleash and what works for you is going to be completely dependent on your business, completely dependent on your audience and on your niche, and on what you want to do as well. 

 

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