Don’t “Niche down.” Do This Instead.

What the gurus get wrong about niching down, and what I think actually works.

If you’ve spent any time in the online business world, you’ve heard the advice: niche down.

“Get hyper specific.”

“Define your ideal customer avatar down to their age, income, hobbies, what they eat for breakfast, and the name of their dog.”

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but only slightly. The advice out there basically says you should be targeting “sixty-year-old men with osteoporosis who live in the suburbs and drive a Toyota.” And look, I get the impulse behind it. Specificity matters. But that level of niching is so robotic and impersonal that it doesn’t actually reflect how people talk, how they buy, or how business works in the real world.

Then you’ve got the other extreme, which is where I lived for over a year: no clear niche at all.

As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I called myself a “marketing strategist.” Sometimes a “copywriter.” Sometimes a “fractional director of marketing.” Depended on who I was talking to and honestly, depended on the day. All of those things were technically true — I could do all of them and had experience in all of them. But nobody could refer me because nobody could figure out which problem I actually solved. “He does marketing stuff” is not a referral.

So you’ve got two ends of the spectrum. One is so hyper-focused it feels jargony and unnatural. The other is so vague that nobody knows what you do, including you on certain days.

And I think the answer — as it usually is — lives somewhere in the middle.

“Niching down?” Here’s what actually works

You need a clear service that you provide for a real market. One where your skills are actually in demand and where the people in that market can actually pay you for the work.

Now that doesn’t mean you need to define your ideal client’s shoe size. But you do need to be specific enough that when someone in your network hears about a problem you solve, your name is the one that comes to mind.

I’ll give you an example from my own business.

The moment I stopped being “the marketing guy” and started positioning myself as the person who builds email and funnel systems that drive revenue, things shifted. Conversations are getting easier, referrals are trickling in without me asking, and leads actually know what we are going to discuss before we get on a call. Same person, same skills, completely different result. And the only thing that changed was how clear I was about what I do and who I do it for.

That’s the level of specificity I’m talking about. This isn’t simply a hyper-detailed avatar. Rather, focus on a single/tertiary service for a — specific enough — and existing market.

How to find the right market for you

Most people overthink this part.

They sit in front of a blank page trying to “decide” their niche like it’s a multiple choice test. It’s not. Your niche is already telling you what it is if you pay attention.

Look at your last 5-10 conversations with potential clients or people asking for help.

• What problems keep coming up?

• What industry are those people in?

• What language do they use to describe what they need?

The first step in picking your niche is always to look at where your network is strongest.

If you spent 8 years in real estate tech, your niche is probably not “coaches and consultants.” You have a decade of context, relationships, and credibility in a specific world and you should use it.

Second thing to consider — one that is highly under-appreciated I might add — is what you actually enjoy delivering. This matters more than people admit. If you hate the work, you’ll resent the clients, and resentment kills a solo business — any business actually — faster than anything.

When I started Veritas Copy, my first clients were people I already knew from my network. Many of them were faith-based organizations, founders I’d met through years of ministry and community. I didn’t sit down and decide “my niche is faith-led founders,” rather the market “told me” if you will, because the demand was already there. I simply had to stop fighting it and lean in.

From there, it evolved. I went from broad copywriting to LinkedIn content to email and funnels. Each step got more specific as I learned what I was actually best at and where my work produced the strongest results for clients. That’s how niching works for most people in my experience. You don’t nail it on day one.

You start with your best guess based on real signals, commit to it for long enough to see meaningful results (90 days is a good rule of thumb), and refine it from there.

Two “Specificity” Levers

There are really only two levers when it comes to getting more specific.

First is by function, which means you niche by what you do.

“I build email systems” is a function niche. “I do fractional CFO work” is a function niche. You’re defining the skill or deliverable, and you’re willing to do it across different industries.

Second is by industry, which means you niche by who you serve.

“I work with e-commerce brands” or “I help Christian nonprofits.” You might do several things for that audience, but you’ve chosen a specific market to serve.

I’d say the best (in terms of results and profitability) solo operators eventually do both.

“I build email systems for e-commerce brands” is tighter than either one alone. But when you’re starting out, my suggestion is just pick one. And the one you pick should be driven by where the demand is already pulling you, not simply what sounds best on a LinkedIn headline.

Make sure the market can actually pay you

This is the part that trips people up and it’s honestly the most important filter in this whole process. You can find a market you love and still go broke if the fundamentals aren’t there. So before you commit, run your niche through four questions.

1) Do they have real pain?

Not a “nice to have” problem, but something that is actively costing them money, time, or sleep right now.

If your service is something they’d get around to eventually but don’t feel any urgency to solve today, you’re going to spend your life trying to convince people to buy instead of helping people who already want what you offer.

2) Is the market stable or growing?

I heard a story recently about a guy who couldn’t figure out why his company was stalling. He was in the newspaper business. He was a sharp and experienced entrepreneur who built a solid product, but the market itself was dying underneath him.

When he switched industries, he went from a few million a year to a few million a week. The same operator applied to a different market, and that was the only variable that changed.

Especially in an ever changing landscape like today, you have to stay keenly aware of the factors that are making your market more or less relevant in real time.

3) Can you actually find them?

Are they congregated somewhere you can reach — associations, communities, social media groups, conferences, specific channels they pay attention to?

If you can’t get your offer in front of your ideal client consistently, it doesn’t matter how good the offer is, they’ll never see it.

4) Can they afford to pay you?

This is the one I see trip up operators — especially solo ones — more than any other. They pick a niche based on empathy. A lot of times because they want to help people who remind them of their younger selves. Which often means they’re targeting people who are broke.

I heard about another person recently who was building a resume coaching business targeting unemployed professionals. Tons of pain, growing market, easy to find. But nobody had money to pay for coaching because they didn’t have jobs. The whole business was dead on arrival because of that one missing piece. Don’t be like that guy if you want to build a profitable business.

Wanting to help someone and that someone being able to pay you are two different things, and you need both. A ship that can’t leave harbor because the market can’t support it isn’t a business. If all you want is a hobby that drains your savings, then great, go after a market that can’t pay you.

TLDR: If any one of those four is missing, you’ll grind yourself into the ground no matter how passionate you are about serving that market.

Now test it

“What if I go too narrow and there aren’t enough clients?”

I hear this all the time from people just starting out. And I’d push back on that pretty hard because as a solo operator you don’t need that many clients. You need 3-5 great ones at any given time, maybe fewer depending on your pricing. You don’t need the entire addressable market.

Focus on being the answer for a small group of people who see you as the obvious choice for their specific problem. That’s it.

And the irony is that the narrower you go (within reason, not the hyper-avatar stuff I mentioned earlier), the more people actually come to you. Because:

Specificity creates clarity → clarity creates referrals → referrals create a pipeline that doesn’t depend on you posting content every single day and praying the right person sees it.

I have more inbound conversations now that I position around email and funnel systems than I ever did when I was offering “marketing strategy, copywriting, content, demand gen, and fractional CMO services.” It’s the good ol, “Five things on the menu and nobody ordered vs. one thing on the menu and people line up.”

So here’s a practical exercise. Write one sentence and fill in the blanks:

“I help [specific type of client] with [specific problem or outcome] through [your specific method or deliverable].”

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Focus on making it specific enough that someone could hear it and immediately know whether they need you or know someone who does. Then put it in your LinkedIn headline, say it on your next few networking calls, use it in DMs when someone asks what you do. Pay attention to what happens.

• Do people lean in and ask follow-up questions?

• Do they say “oh, I know someone who needs that”?

If yes, you’re on the right track. If you get blank stares, tighten it up and try again.

(One caveat: don’t confuse “too narrow” with “too unfamiliar.” If people don’t react, it might not mean your niche is wrong. It might mean you’re testing it in the wrong room. A niche only works when you’re putting it in front of the people it’s actually meant for.)

If you read last week’s edition on building your offer, you’ve got the structure + you know the four components and how to think about value creation. But an offer without a target is just a nice idea floating in space.

Your niche is meant to give your offer a home. It tells you who to talk to, what language to use, where to show up, and how to position the value in a way that resonates with a specific person and their specific problem.

Pick one, test it for 90 days, and let the market tell you what it thinks. And if you’re working through this right now and want someone to pressure test your niche statement, reply to this email or send me a message. I read every one and I’m happy to give you a gut check.

If this was useful, forward it to someone in your network who’s building solo.

— Lucas

A few things before you go…

1. As I mentioned, I’m building Veritas Copy - an agency building done-for-you funnels and email systems for B2B and B2C businesses. We take their existing traffic, leads, and audience and turn them into consistent revenue. If you or someone you know has a funnel that isn’t converting like it should or an email list that can be driving more revenue but isn’t - send them my way.

2. I want to feature more solo businesses in this newsletter. If you’re clearing six figures or $20k/month in revenue and want to share what’s working, or if you know someone who is, send me an email at lucas@veritascopy.com or DM me on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear the story.