Finding your niche is something a lot of business coaches focus on when mentoring clients. Far too many new businesses are stuck at the starting blocks, simply because they cannot decide on a suitable niche. And, as a long-standing mentor to Virtual Assistants, I find that incredibly sad.
If you’re ready to start your Virtual Assistant business or any business for that matter, I’m not so sure that finding your niche should be your top priority when starting out. Here’s why.
To niche or not to niche?
There’s a lot of pressure put on new businesses to find a niche. But what is a niche anyway? For many of us, it’s something that helps narrow down our marketing – it doesn’t necessarily define us or what we do.
And market niches do not exist of themselves, they’re something we create. They’re primarily a means to help us focus on identifying the needs and wants of a certain group of people, so we can provide a needed product or service as a solution. My opinion of niching is that it is merely another tool in our marketing kit – and we should not beat ourselves up if we don’t have one.
Your niche tends to reveal itself once you get going
The truth is, when you’re first starting out in business you don’t have the experience, nor enough information in the present moment, to make a conscious decision about a niche. Very often, you’re not sure who you really want to work with, or what you want to focus on. You’re experimenting and trialling new things – and it’s only over a period of time that your preferred niche will be revealed.
Your niche is seldom a one time done thing
And here’s the big news flash: your niche is seldom a one-time done decision. As your business grows, it will evolve and change – and so will your niche. You’re going to make mistakes and have failed experiments with your services and products. The decisions you’re certain are right for you, will no longer serve you, and you’ll even get tired or bored of providing certain services.
Go with your passion, not finding your niche
That’s why it’s so important to go with your passion, the things you like doing. Because you’re going to be doing it every day. So, what comes naturally to you and fills you with happiness? There are going to be days when you’re totally demotivated. Yet you still have to drag yourself up in front of that laptop (especially if the kids have been unwell and kept you up all night!). You need to be passionate enough about what you do, that, even when you’re feeling at your lowest, you’ll still get a warm feeling of satisfaction at a job well done, every time you work with a client.
Because let’s face it, there is no point doing anything other than what you love and enjoy, especially if you’re working for yourself. That’s if you want both an awesome Virtual Assistant business and to stay sane!
Don’t let your niche hangups stunt your business growth
If you’re waiting until you have your niche sorted, before you start – stop waiting! Hoping to get it right out of the starting blocks is simply a fear around getting it wrong. You might as well know now, no matter what stage of business you’re in, you are going to make mistakes and you will get things wrong – it’s natural.
If you’re putting your business on hold until you have your perfect niche worked out and all your ducks lined up in a row, you’ll never get started.
Focus on what services you’d like to offer
Instead of worrying about finding your perfect niche, focus instead on the services you’d like to offer. Not only is this a more constructive way of thinking, but it also helps you focus more on the solutions you can provide to others.
And, as soon as you know what services you’d like to offer – you can get started on promoting them and growing your business.
Opt for experience and motivation
The key here is you shouldn’t have to focus on your niche, in order to get your Virtual Assistant business up and running. It is far more important to get your business started, as it’s only through experience that you’ll learn what does and doesn’t work for you.
Once you have some experience under your belt, you will then know what does and doesn’t motivate you. Both in terms of the type of client you prefer to work with, the services you want to focus on providing and the industry you want to help. This will then lead to you finding the right niche for you.
As a long-standing mentor to Virtual Assistants, I know how frustrating it can be, not having all the answers. But if finding your niche is one of those answers you’re looking for, I’d thoroughly recommend you focus instead, on getting your business up and running. If you’d like help getting started, I’d recommend you check out the following articles: Top Tips on How to Build & Grow Your VA Business, How to Become a Virtual Assistant? It’s Easier if You Focus! and How Important is it to Have a Coach or Mentor? If you know you are ready to launch your VA business, then I would love to be the VA Coach and Trainer that fast tracks you through the start up process – you can start our VA Mastery Course at any time, (that’s the beauty of it being a distance learning course) and to niche or not to niche is something we really focus on.