You may be wondering why you need to narrow down your handmade business niche, you may be wondering what a niche is, or you may be like me and still don’t know how to pronounce the word correctly. If you came here for the pronunciation, I’m afraid I can’t help you. Is it pronounced “neesh” or “nitch”? However, I can help you understand why niching down your handmade business can help you grow your business.
What Is A Niche?
A niche is simply a specialized or highly skilled talent in a specific area of your market. In this post, we are focusing on handmade craft items, so it is products or interests that appeal to a small, targeted group of people. When you niche down your products, you allow them to thrive in certain markets.
For example, when I started my handmade embroidery business, I was overwhelmed by the different things I could make. I wanted to make it all, but that would have cost me a fortune in materials and supplies. After a few months of embroidering, I narrowed down what I offered to family-themed shirts for vacations, Christmas, reunions, and other family events. I still made specially ordered items for family and friends on the side but what I advertised and sold was within my niche.
A few years into my embroidering business, the vinyl machines became popular, and people could make what I was making cheaper and faster. My business had to pivot. By then, I had a website highlighting my hometown of Rome, Georgia. I decided to make Georgia-themed items. I now make shirts, hats, keychains, ornaments, and other items with the state of Georgia. Sometimes it is necessary to pivot, which is okay; you just don’t want to pivot often.
Why You Should Niche Down Your Business
Okay, I get it. Asking a creative person to pick just one thing and building a business around it sounds like insanity. It may feel like you are being restricted and being told to suppress your creativity. Not at all. I remember panicking when I was working with my business coach, and she kept telling me to niche down more. I wanted to do it all. The reality is I can’t do it all and reach my audience of customers. I needed a narrowed-down niche so that I could specifically meet the needs of a targeted audience. If you try to do too much, you will either not reach the people that you need to, or you will get so burned out that you give up. By trying to reach everyone, you will reach no one.
When you are niched down, you become more of an expert in your area. You have a clearly defined scope of craftsmanship that is easy to identify and understand. It helps your customers know what you offer instead of random non-related items.
How to nail down your niche
Okay, you get that you need to narrow your niche, but how exactly do you do that? Well, I have four steps that I have used to narrow down my niche.
Step 1 Write down everything that you offer, make, or sell. Get it all written down so you can take a step back and review it.
Step 2 Decide which items are your best sellers, which ones are your favorite to make, and which ones you think could be a good market.
Step 3 Research your niche by doing a Google search and find out if there is a market for your product. If you find search results for your product, there is a market for your niche. If you can’t find anything matching your products, you may need to rethink your niche. You want your niche to appeal to people, and there needs to be a demand for it.
Step 4 Test your niche. The best way to know if you are niched down enough or too much is to test it out. Test your niche on your target audience and see how they respond. Then adjust accordingly.
To find out how to do market research check out my post How To Conduct Marketing Research For Your Craft Business.
How To Be An Expert In Your Niche
It takes time to establish yourself in the craft world, so you want to take advantage of every possible technique to establish yourself as an expert in your niche the quickest.
One of those ways is to use the power of social media. If used correctly, social media can quickly grow your business. You don’t have to use every social media platform available, but using one or two can help you get started in your business. My advice is to master one social media platform before adding another.
One way to let people know what you do and offer is to talk about your business to everyone who will listen. Nail down your elevator pitch, which is a summary of your business, and what you do squeeze into a 30-second spill that you could give in an elevator ride. By perfecting your elevator pitch, you can quickly explain what you are doing without thinking about what you will say.
Know what your audience wants to see. The best way to know what they want is to be engaged with them on social media, by email, and in person. Ask questions, create polls, and surveys to see what your audience is most interested in. You ultimately have control of what you offer, but you can get a feel of what your audience would like and will eventually purchase.
How To Stand Out In A Niche Market
One thing that will help you stand out above the rest is excellent customer service. If you treat them right the first time, people will come back to you. You only get one chance to make a good impression. Make a bad impression, and you will hurt that customer relationship for life. They will always be hesitant even if they come back to you.
Provide a solution for their needs. If you can’t provide your customer with a solution to their need, they will assume you are wasting their time and move on to the next shiny object. Position your product as a solution to a problem, even if they don’t realize they have the issue.
Build relationships with your customers. Everyone you come into contact with is a potential customer, so you always need to be building positive relationships.
To learn more about standing out in a craft market, check out my post Discover A Technique To Help New Crafters To Stand Out In The Craft Market where I go deeper into how to stand out in a crowded craft market.
What Makes A Niche Profitable
When choosing a niche, you want to make sure that there is a demand for the item. One way to tell is to research to see if other people are selling similar items. Etsy and Pinterest are great ways to determine if a product is popular. If there is a demand for your niche, it will be profitable.
Set your price for the right amount. When pricing your items, you want to ensure you are charging enough to cover your time, supplies, and expertise. Please don’t sell yourself short when it comes to pricing. You don’t want to be the most expensive, but you don’t want to be cheap either.
Choosing a niche can be daunting and exciting at the same time. Once you decide on your niche, you can make it uniquely yours. Share in the comments what your niche is. I love seeing everyone’s ideas.
Want to know if you are ready to turn your craft hobby into a craft business? I’ve created a free checklist of the 5 Things to Have Before Starting A Craft Business so you can turn your hobby into a craft business. I created this checklist because I often see DIY Crafter and Handmade Crafters struggling with knowing how to get started as a business. If you can relate to this, my 5 Things To Have Before Starting A Craft Business is explicitly designed to help you know exactly what it takes to start a handmade business and get to do what you love, crafting. So if you’d like to take advantage of this free download.
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Great post! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading!
These are such great tips, Erin. Thanks for sharing. It can be intimidating to niche down, but for some reason, the more people say “do it!” the more empowering it is!
Yes, it is. It was hard to see how it would help me when I was going through the process, but in the end, I can see why I needed to niche down.