#2 Choosing a Niche Niche

\nich also nesh or nish\ a : a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted <finally found her niche>

I know I’ve spoken about it here and at Home Office Warrior before, but it can’t be stressed enough, you need to find a niche. A lot of people don’t do this because, well, it’s hard. But like many difficult things, it’s worth the time and effort to do.

Determining a niche does the following:

* Allows you to work more efficiently for your clients....Click here to read the rest of this post at the Clerical Advantage Blog.

The Clerical Advantage Blog is authored by VAF member Tina of Clerical Advantage.


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I'm sorry but I don't agree. I think as your business grows and develops you eventually discover a niche that's right for you but unless you really do know what you want to do at the start, I don't feel people should be limiting themselves. Some are very lucky and do know this but the majority don't.

I was a generalist to start with and to some degree, still am. However I tend to focus on Wordpress blogs and sites, web hosting, database and shopping cart management today. It was bookkeeping many years ago and for a 10 year period it was association management - something I fell into by accident but discovered was the perfect fit for me for that period of time.

While I agree it is good to find your niche, I'd hate for new VAs to feel like they cannot progress and move their businesses forward because they're hung up on trying to work out what their niche is. At the start they should stick with what they do best and if that service provision covers a lot of different types of people and industries (such as word-processing for example) then so be it. Eventually they'll discover they're either attracting the same type of clients (i.e. authors or Thesis students) or they will find there are particular types of work they enjoy (such as transcriptions).

Hi Kathie,
Thank you, I appreciate your opinion and by no means would want to discourage new VA's because they can't seem to find a niche. That said, I do feel strongly that you need to narrow things down in some way before you begin. Especially now that there are so many virtual assistants out there.
There's nothing wrong with being a generalist, but trying to market to everyone you end up struggling to connect with anyone. Again, those are my feelings that I've gained through my own experience and the experiences of VA's I've corresponded and spoken with.
I've had much more success since narrowing my niche than I did way back at the beginning when I was marketing to "small businesses who need help". I wish I had understood the benefits of finding a niche back then, and this is why I've listed it in my survival tips. It definitely would have given me an edge as a brand new VA.
Of course, I also know that you continue to learn, grow and change as a business, and as you do, narrowing or changing your niche is always an option.
I've just talked to too many small business people in general who felt they couldn't exclude anyone from their marketing and that they had to offer everything they knew how to do as services. I feel strongly that doing that can hurt your business more than help it.

__________________
~Tina Marie Hilton of Clerical Advantage
& founder of VA Survival School

Perhaps Tina it's the marketing that's the problem, not whether or not someone has a niche practice? The need to market to everyone about everything? When I started I simply only marketed to those I had personal contact with. It was before the internet but I continue to do that today. People I connect with via forums, networking events locally, groups that I belong to whether business or social. I listen to what their needs are and then tell them how I can help them with that need. So I'm not doing blanket promotions to a wide audience out there but rather connecting on a personal level and finding ways I can help them.

I do have a Yellow Pages advert which lists a number of things as I have a team of VAs and this has drawn in many clients. If I was promoting only one or two niche offerings then that advert would not have been as effective.

I'm not saying it's wrong to have a niche - those who do have are very lucky to have them. But there are many out there who feel hindered in running their businesses because they feel they have to dot all their i's and cross all their t's first. And sometimes those things aren't there at the beginning.

Hi Kathie,

What category are you listed under in the yellow pages?

Lezly

Secretarial and Typing Services Lezly. The Yellow Pages hasn't yet caught up with the 'Virtual Assistant' category, but even if they did, those who use the printed yellow pages really wouldn't know what it was. If people who are not computer literate and/or internet literate search through the Yellow Pages then that is the category most likely to get calls. And not just for typing but for all sorts of admin work, even phone answering, bookkeeping, transcriptions and so on. So I buy a block advert for each state here in Australia (not as big as the US) and advertise my website and the services I and the team provide. I've been doing that since 1997 I think it is and it has always been worth doing.

Lezly, I'd like to know what it is you're getting at with the question regarding a Yellow Pages listing...

And, while I can't say that I disagree with Tina [it's always better to 'narrow the channel and strengthen the stream' whenever possible, right?] I also strongly agree with Kathie [the notion that putting too many i's and t's in the way of 'getting started' just makes more i's and t's and doesn't necessarily equal success].

But I don't think Tina is saying that success and having a niche are mutually exclusive, just that having a niche to focus on will make it easier to find, craft a message for, and market that message to your ideal clients.

As someone who is ever-so-exhausted by the desire of some in our industry to micro-define and manage what we do and how we do it I'm especially happy to cheerlead anyone who is all about reinvention and the joy of the process of business development and growth.

With that said, I too was a 'generalist' for ages. Until I came to discover that I'm really good at, and passionate about, SEO, content, websites, internet standards, and so forth... there are some out there who would like to say that I'm not a VA at all because I specialize in something non-administrative. But, others would say, that's my niche. These arguments become really more semantic than anything else at a certain point. Ultimately, I think Tina is offering up advice based on what's worked for her and I can appreciate that.

__________________

Originally Posted by Tess

With that said, I too was a 'generalist' for ages. Until I came to discover that I'm really good at, and passionate about, SEO, content, websites, internet standards, and so forth... there are some out there who would like to say that I'm not a VA at all because I specialize in something non-administrative. But, others would say, that's my niche. These arguments become really more semantic than anything else at a certain point. Ultimately, I think Tina is offering up advice based on what's worked for her and I can appreciate that.

Agreed Tess. I didn't find out for ages what my niche was (at least 3 years) and even then, my 'niche' has changed twice more since then. My 16th anniversary in business will be next March. I think those who know what they want to specialise in are very lucky but there are so many who don't.

It's always good to share what's worked for us so others can read and take for them what might work for them and discard what they think won't.

I love the fact that this has started a conversation here, and people can see that there isn't just one 'right' way to do it.
Kathie, you are right, the biggest reason I advocate narrowing the target market and services offered is for marketing purposes. Since finding clients seems to be one of the biggest hurdles so many virtual assistants face, and because a majority of said VA's are using the Internet for marketing, I felt it could benefit them.
And I wholeheartedly agree with you that waiting until all your 'i's are dotted and 't's are crossed can be counter-productive. This series of posts really is aimed at those VA's that have already started their businesses or are ready to launch and are looking for a few tips from someone who has been there. It's not a 'how to' as much as it's sharing what I've learned by trial and plenty of errors.
And Tess is correct too, I'm not saying that you can't find success without a niche, nor that defining one is the key to success.
I'm finding that even as my business is really starting to bloom I'm still making changes on a regular basis It's good to know how two people I've come to respect so much in our industry have dealt with it.

__________________
~Tina Marie Hilton of Clerical Advantage
& founder of VA Survival School

Yes, it has made for an interesting and enjoyable discussions. Thanks Tina.