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If you are struggling to make sales
all, it's probably not because your market

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is too small. In fact,
most of the time when this is happening,

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I see it actually the other way
around. You've chosen a market that's

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too broad, and that's why you're
struggling to make them sales. Welcome to

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Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor.
For years, I read all the books,

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downloaded all the freebies, and did
all the courses, but it wasn't

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until I started taking imperfect action that
my business had its first million dollar year.

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Imperfect action is about doing things before
you're ready, prioritizing consistent action over

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perfect action, and moving forward even
when you're not sure you're doing it right.

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On this show, you can expect
mindset advice, actionable marketing tips,

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and strategies to build a business that
brings you more profit, more freedom,

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and even more joy. Are you
on the list to get my daily businesses?

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Every day, I'll send you a
bite sized prompt designed to help you'd

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grow your business in a more intentional
way. Sign up at Steph Taylor dot

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Co, forward slash DBB, or
at the link in the show notes.

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Hey, welcome back to in Perfect
Action. This is episode seven hundred and

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eighty five. Today, I'm sharing
some signs that you might be in the

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wrong niche in your business. Now, niching is a pretty hot topic at

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all times. I know it's one
of the questions that I get asked over

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and over and over again is how
much should I niche? Am I in

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the right niche? So today we're
going to talk about a couple of those,

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the signs that you might have chosen
the wrong niche or that the niche

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that you are in is no longer
serving you, and maybe it's time to

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think about making a change. Now, rewind a couple of years to when

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I was working as a marketing consultant. This is before I fired all of

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my clients, before I launched courses, and before I started prioritizing freedom in

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my business. I was trying to
grow my marketing consultancy into an agency,

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and I niched my business because everyone
told me I had to. And I

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thought that niching meant you say,
I only served these people, So I

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niched down into wellness businesses. And
even though I had niched down into wellness

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businesses, I still offered pretty much
every marketing service under the sun, Facebook

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ads, Google ads, social media
management, email, marketing, blog writing,

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like you name it. I did
it right, but I said no

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to anyone who wasn't a wellness business
because I wanted to become known as the

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go to person for wellness marketing brands
and well, even though I was in

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a niche, it was a really
vague niche because a wellness service business is

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really different to an e commerce business, which is also different to a coaching

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business, and so I never really
made a name for myself as the go

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to for anything. And in the
hindsight, I now know I was in

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the wrong niche, and I know
that that niche that I was in wasn't

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specific enough. And thinking back,
if I think back, what would I've

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done differently, Well, maybe I
could have niched down to just wellness e

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commerce brands or wellness coaches, or
I could have just become known for doing

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one thing, really really well marketing
strategy for wellness brands. Hindsight is such

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a beautiful thing, and I now
know that I was in the wrong niche,

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But when you're in it, it
can be really hard to know and

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really hard to tell. So this
episode, I'm sharing a few of the

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signs that the niche you are in
might not be the right one for you.

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Sign number one that your niche isn't
the right one you've hit a growth

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ceiling. Now, when you are
starting out, it's a great idea to

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start with a really specific niche,
but as you start to serve more and

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more people in the market, you
might reach a ceiling where you've outgrown the

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market. Now, if you are
struggling to make sales all, it's probably

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not because your market is too small. In fact, most of the time

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when this is happening, I see
it actually the other way around. You've

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chosen a market that's too broad and
that's why you're struggling to make those sales.

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But on the other hand, if
you have made sales and your business

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has grown from when you first chose
that niche, and you've found that you've

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hit a ceiling in terms of people
that you can serve, you know there

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aren't enough people in the market for
you to keep working with, then that's

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a sign that your total addressable market
is too small for your business. For

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example, let's say that I'm a
podcasting coach for podcasters in Brisbane. Now,

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there's only so many of them that
I can serve and maybe once I've

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got forty of them on my client
roster. There aren't really that many more

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podcasters in Brisbane, and it might
be a sign for me to expand to

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Sydney as well. But when you're
starting out, narrow is really good.

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Seth Goden talks about this concept of
making waves in a swimming pool versus making

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waves in an ocean. It's really
easy when you jump into that pool to

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make a splash and make some ripples
in the swimming pool. When you jump

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into the ocean, it doesn't really
do a whole lot. It's a lot

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easier to become known as the go
to person in that swimming pool in that

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really narrow niche than it is to
become known as the go to person to

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stand out to make a splash in
a larger, broader niche. The second

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sign you might be in the wrong
niche is if you are struggling to reach

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people and stand out. Now,
this can happen for a bunch of reasons,

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but a really big one is niche
selection. Generally speaking, the broader

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the niche, the more saturated it's
going to be, and the harder it's

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going to be to stand out and
reach the right people with your business.

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And that's because the broader your niche, the bigger your messaging needs to be.

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For example, social media marketer versus
a social media marketer for podcasters.

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If you're a social media marketer in
general, your messaging is going to be

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around growing your business. But when
you're a social media marketer for podcasters,

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now your messaging becomes growing your podcast. And you can be really specific in

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the problems that podcasters are experiencing,
and that's how you catch their attention.

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For example, a podcaster is constantly
creating audio content, they don't have time

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to create social media content as well. That's a problem you could talk to.

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You might also say, well,
you're really struggling to keep growing your

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show. That's going to resonate really
well with a podcaster better than somebody who

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is trying to just speak to everybody. Now, the question that always comes

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up here is well, won't I
limit my business by niching down. Yeah,

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you might one day when you outgrow
your market, but you can worry

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about that. You can expand once
you've built a reputation, once you've built

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an audience, once you've built a
profitable business, then you can worry about

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outgrowing your market. But when you're
starting out, you don't need to worry

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about going too narrow because chances are
you are not limiting yourself and you will

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have more than enough people you can
serve, all right. The third sign

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that you have chosen the wrong niche
is that it doesn't genuinely interest you.

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Now, this is different to the
dip, another Seth Golden concept. I'm

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a big fan. This is different
to the dip where you start to lose

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a bit of motivation and excitement when
you get to the middle of a project,

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or you get a few years into
your business and it's no longer shiny

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and exciting. Rather, when I'm
saying it doesn't interest you, I'm saying

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that you maybe chose the niche because
it was a good opportunity or because it

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was a trend, and now you're
starting to realize that you're not actually that

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interested in it. And it doesn't
mean that you need to be one hundred

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percent excited about your business one hundred
percent of the time, and that if

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you're not, you're in the wrong
niche or the wrong business. And it

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doesn't mean that you need to feel
like your business is your life's purpose all

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of the time. But you do
want to find your niche somewhat interesting.

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You do want to enjoy talking about
it, You do really want to enjoy

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working with clients, And if you
don't, then that's a sign that you're

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in the wrong space, because if
you're not interested in it, it's going

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to be really hard to stay motivated
in the long run. You're not going

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to want to keep learning and growing
and expanding because you're not genuinely curious about

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it. The only way that I've
been able to share six hundred and forty

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two episodes of this podcast is because
I find the things that I am talking

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about genuinely really interesting, and I
really enjoy teaching my students in my courses.

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I enjoy the few clients that I
work with one on one because I

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find it's so interesting. But if
I had chosen, for example, I

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don't know real estate businesses as my
niche, I'd probably run out of things

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to talk about because I'm just not
that curious about that niche and I don't

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really want to go and consume content
and learn about it, so I'd run

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out of things to say. The
fourth sign that you are in the wrong

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niche is that it's a niche in
name only. Now, there is nothing

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wrong with being a marketing strategist for
spiritual brands, only that this isn't a

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niche. It's brand messaging, and
it's quite broad. There are a lot

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of marketing agencies out there, and
yeah, you might make your messaging slightly

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targeted towards a particular audience, but
it's still very, very broad and very

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vague. So niching this further would
then either look like niching by what you

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do, who you serve, or
the outcome you deliver. So if we

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take the example marketing strategist for spiritual
brands, well you could niche by what

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you do by a bigcause becoming a
Google Ads strategist for spiritual brands, or

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by who you serve becoming a marketing
strategist for spiritual coaches, or by the

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outcome a marketing strategist that takes spiritual
brands from ten thousand dollar months to one

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hundred thousand dollar months. Notice how
suddenly we've gone from an ocean to a

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swimming pool. It's much easier to
become known as the Google Ads person or

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the spiritual coaches person or the person
that takes spiritual brands from ten thousand dollar

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months to one hundred thousand dollar months. Then it is to become known as

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this much broader marketing consultant or marketing
agency for spiritual brands. And then the

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fifth sign that you are in the
wrong niche is if your niche can't actually

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afford to pay you. I'm assuming
for this one, I'm assuming you are

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running a for profit business. This
is a huge sign that you are in

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the wrong niche because your business needs
to make money to keep the lights on,

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and you can't help anybody with your
business. If your business isn't making

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any money, your free content that
can be great for helping the people who

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can't afford to work with you,
but you also do need to have people

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can afford to work with you.
Now, there are two scenarios that come

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up here, right, So the
first one is people who tell you they

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can't afford to work with you,
but they actually genuinely do have money to

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spend, but they're just spending it
elsewhere. This is not a sign that

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you're in the wrong niche. This
is not a sign that your niche can't

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afford you or that you're charging too
much. It's a sign that they don't

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prioritize what you are selling, which
might mean that your marketing and your messaging

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is off, or that they are
not your ideal client who you are currently

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selling to, or that your ideal
client needs a bit more educating before they'll

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be ready to buy from you.
The other scenario is the one that I'm

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talking about, which is where your
niche truly doesn't have any money to spend.

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Maybe you're trying to sell to struggling
students or broke musicians. I have

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a friend who actually tried to start
a business around that and then realize,

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oh, you need to be selling
to people who actually have money to spend.

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You can still serve these people pro
bono or with your free content,

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but you can only do that if
your business is making enough money to stay

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afloat, and for that to happen, you need to find a niche that

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can afford to pay you. So
there you have it. Five signs that

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you might be in the wrong niche. Sign Number one, you've hit a

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growth ceiling. Number two, you
are struggling to reach people and stand out.

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Number three, it doesn't genuinely interest
you number four it's a niche in

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name only, and number five your
niche can't actually afford to pay you.

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Now, as a podcaster, I
am constantly talking into my microphone and I

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feel like sometimes I don't even know
if people are listening until I meet somebody

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at an event and they say,
oh, I've been listening to a podcast

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for so many years now. I
know that you guys are out there,

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but I don't hear from you enough. So please, I really would appreciate

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it if you took thirty seconds to
leave a quick rating and a review in

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Apple Podcasts. It means a lot
to me. It reminds me that I

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have actual listeners out there who this
is making a difference too. So if

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this podcast has helped you any way
at all in your business, that is

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my one little ask for you today
is please take the time. It makes

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a difference to me, and it
also can be the difference between somebody choosing

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to listen to the show or another
one, so it really does help.

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So thank you so much for listening
today, and I will catch you next time.