If you’ve been in business for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard the advice: you need to niche.

And while I agree that focus is important, I don’t agree with the way niching is often presented, as if you have to pick one narrow industry, one type of client, or one specific platform to specialise in if you want to be successful.

That may work for some people, but it doesn’t work for everyone. And it’s certainly not the only way.

What niching really means

To me, niching isn’t just about who you serve. It can also be about how you serve.

Take my own business as an example. My clients are diverse: I work with (predominantly) female-founded, service-based businesses across industries as varied as floristry, psychology, medical research and accounting. They don’t look the same on paper.

But my version of niching shows up in how I deliver my work.

Instead of dragging projects out over months, my services are designed to be focused and efficient:

• Intensives that deliver a full messaging and copy overhaul in a week
  
• Done-in-a-day style projects for websites, email sequences, or CustomGPT creation
  
• Strategy sessions that give clients clarity in a single sitting
  

This approach is my niche. It sets me apart from service providers who might technically “do” the same things, but in a different way.

Your niche is your difference

When you think about niching as “point of difference” rather than “industry,” it opens up your options.

Your niche might be:

• The way you structure your services (e.g. retainer vs. intensive vs. done-in-a-day)
  
• The approach or methodology you use
  
• The kind of relationship you build with clients (partner vs. task-ticker)
  
• The transformation you specialise in delivering
  

These are all just as powerful, if not more powerful, than saying “I only serve X type of client in Y industry.”

Why this matters

When you can clearly articulate your point of difference, you stop competing on a laundry list of features and start positioning yourself around the benefits and value of working with you.

And the best part? Once you’ve claimed your niche, you don’t really have competitors anymore. Because no one else can do things exactly the way you do.

A quick takeaway

If the idea of niching has always felt restrictive to you, here’s my challenge:

• Write down what makes your approach different.
  
• Look at your client relationships and ask: how do I show up differently than others in my field?
  
• Test weaving this language into your website or LinkedIn headline.

Instead of niching being only about who you serve, start to think of it as being about how you stand out.