Why you don’t need to niche to run a successful business

+ my popular self-led course Small business newsletter magic is returning at the end of the month 💌

Your newsletter can be your most powerful (and joyful!) tool. You just have to find out how. Small business newsletter magic, my popular self-led course, is returning at the end of this month. Sign up for the waitlist to receive a welcome-email checklist, a bonus peptalk and 10% off on the course. 💌

“I want to do all these different things, but I have to choose. Right?”

“If I don’t find and stay in my niche, people will be confused about what I do.”

“I’ve tried forcing myself to do just one thing, but that killed all my enthusiasm for my business.”

Sound familiar?

In my 1:1 work with small business owners, freelancers and creatives the topic of niching often comes up. The idea that even though we might have multiple passions, multiple things we want to sell, multiple things we want to do in our business, we shouldn’t. We should focus on one thing, the thing that we want to be known for.

I don’t agree.

In this post I share a different approach to niching, and encourage you to follow your different passions in your business instead.

Why I don’t believe in niching

Niching might sound like it provides the focus and clarity you need. The business gurus even suggest that you need to niche for your audience to recognise your ‘brand’ and to buy from you.

Rather than being known as a writer/gardener/ceramist/photographer, we need to be known only as “a writer”. Or even better, as a writer writing about small-town life in rural Canada. Perhaps even through a specific lens. There’s nothing wrong with being this writer—as long as it works for you.

But what if it doesn’t work to just be one thing?

Forcing yourself to be and do just one thing is painful and will probably kill your motivation. You’ll find yourself unable to follow through with your plans for your business. You’ll feel yourself drawn again and again to those other projects, products or services. You’ll beat yourself up for not being able to play according to the business rules.

You don’t need to niche in order to have a successful business. If you are a writer who is also a coach, go with it. If you’re a therapist who also performs as a singer, embrace it. If you’re a knitwear designer who also teaches dance, do it.

But, you might say, won’t my audience be confused if I offer ceramics classes as well as hikes? Won’t they be confused if they see that I teach dance classes and sell knitwear designs? Won’t they stop taking me seriously if they see that I’m not just doing one thing?

I can promise you, they won’t.

You don’t need to niche to have a successful business.

The only rule is to be clear about what you do and for whom. And what you do can be several things. You can create products and other services. You can offer therapy and write cookbooks.

Because the thing is: you are the most important part of your business. And forcing yourself to be different will only lead to frustration.

You are the umbrella

Perhaps I’m a bad example. From my bio and website, I seem to have niched quite neatly: I’m a mentor supporting female small business owners, freelancers and creatives run slower, gentler and more profitable businesses.

But when I started my business, I worked as a teacher 4 days a week and as a researcher 1 day a week. I let the research go around 2020 and gradually decreased my hours at my teaching job to where I am now: working in my business 3 days week and 2 in my teaching job. Even though I benefit hugely from my teaching experience in the mentoring work I do, the teaching is not part of my business.

How I run my business next to a 9-to-5

Your situation might be similar. But whatever it is, remember this: you are the umbrella. You are the secret sauce. You are the unifying force in all of this, whether you work a ‘regular’ job and run your business part-time or whether you have two, three or four strands to your business.

How to do more than one thing in your business

• vary in terms of the products/services you sell: for instance creating workshops, self-led courses, mentoring, worksheets, patterns etc. all around one strand or area;

• combine several strands in one business: part of your business is being a public speaker on diversity, and part of your business is writing children’s books on nature; part of your business is creating stationary, and part of it is offering mentoring services to other creatives;

• separate businesses: in some cases it might be sense to have two separate businesses. Still, it’s up to you—you’re still the umbrella and both can live in the same business.

Finding focus

Having different passions and strands in your business can be really lovely. But it also means finding a balance, a rhythm, in working on them.

Depending on your time and personality, you might be able to tend to the different strands all at the same time: you might spend the mornings writing, and the afternoons with clients in your therapy practice. Or you might create seasons for yourself, in which the products you sell and create have your focus for a few weeks or even months, before you turn your focus to another strand.

Allow yourself to experiment. Be gentle with yourself. And remember that you don’t need to follow anyone’s rules about niching.

How do you feel about niching in your business? Does it come naturally to you and feel good, or would you rather have several strands?

a show | J and I had a lot of fun watching Netflix’ The Residence — a delightfully light-hearted murder-mystery.

all the books | I was pleasantly surprised by Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep, fascinated by The End of Drum-Time (Hanna Palväinen) and moved by Roísin O’Donnell’s Nesting. I also soaked up all the gorgeousness of Megan Hunter’s new novel Days of Light, which is so so good (affiliate links).

Eric | a few weeks ago I was baffled by a strange, loud sound coming from the leafy corner underneath the wisteria. Since then, we’ve discovered that hedgehogs can make a surprising amount of noise (and produce a lot of poop). J has named our hedgehog guest Eric 🦔

As always, thank you for being here, for reading and commenting. Do let me know what resonated with you from this newsletter by leaving a comment or hitting ‘reply’. I reply to every single comment and message, and they light up my day ✨ x

Female Owned is more than a newsletter. If you are ready to do business differently, I’d love for you to become a paid subscriber and become part of our gentle community of small business owners, freelancers and creatives. You’ll get bonus resources (the accountability club! the mini-mastermind! the new mini podcast series!) and behind-the-scenes posts right in your inbox.