How to Choose a Niche for Your Business

Choose a niche for your online business and you’ll complete one of the most important decisions you’ll make when starting an online business. It’s also one of the biggest hang-ups preventing potential businesses from starting.

As you consider what niche to jump into, consider what you know and are good at. Use your existing knowledge and skills to narrow your focus to what interests you and also has the potential to make money.

If your business is centered around your passion, the process of running it will be more enjoyable and sustainable. The more you relate to and understand your audience’s needs, the more value you can deliver by helping them solve problems.

Online Success Starts with What You Know

The key to being successful online, particularly if your focus is information-based, is to figure out what you’re good at.

Where can you be most helpful and who should you be helping? That’s the most important question you should ask yourself. The best place to start is with what you know.

Let’s say you’re just getting started with your online business, or you’re considering expanding into a new niche.

Brainstorm Your Expertise to Choose a Niche

How do you find out what you should do and who you should serve? You start with a little brainstorming session.

Get out a piece of paper or open a document on your computer and start jotting things down. Remember this is a brainstorming exercise, so don’t judge or censor yourself. No idea is too far fetched. Include everything you know something about from things based on your education, your job history, personal experience, and even hobbies and interests. You never know what will spark an interesting idea worth pursuing.

Zero-In Toward Your Niche

With that list in hand, it’s time to narrow it down to ideas that have the biggest profit potential for you. There are two criteria I like to look at.

The first is if I am interested in the topic. It doesn’t have to be the biggest passion, but building a new business will be a lot more fun if I’m enjoying the work.

There will be plenty of content to create and products to research. You’ll spend a lot of time reading and thinking about the niche. It makes sense to pick something you don’t completely despise. Cut out anything you have no interest in at all.

Next, it’s time to make sure you pick something with profit potential.

Go through the remainder of your list line by line and ask yourself if people spend money on this. Do they buy products, do they buy information, are there advertisers in this niche? If there aren’t, cross it off the list.

By now your list should be significantly shorter. If it’s still too long, go through it again, cutting out anything that you’re not excited about or that doesn’t show pretty good profit potential.

Choose the Winner

Once you have it down to a handful of possibilities it’s time to choose a niche with the highest profit potential.

Think about what you know the most about. Where can you be most helpful and make the biggest impact? That’s a great place to start.

Sit down and see if you can brainstorm a list of 10 interesting article or video topics and ideas for a few products to create or promote. If you can, you’ve found your winner. If not, go back to another idea from your shortlist.

This simple process will help you quickly come up with a niche idea based on what you already know that has a good potential to work. While there are no guarantees, it doesn’t hurt to put the odds in your favor.

Stop Imposter Syndrome in its Tracks

There’s a lot of talk about being an expert in your field these days. Sure, authority and expertise build trust, but they aren’t all they are cracked up to be.

Don’t avoid a particular niche or hold off on teaching a subject because you aren’t an expert in it yet.

There’s a lot to be said about being able to relate to your target audience. It’s much easier to do that and build a strong relationship when you are just a few steps ahead of them.

When you’re a true expert who has spent years honing his or her craft, it’s hard to remember what it was like when you were first starting out.

Let’s take the weight loss and fitness niche for example. If you’ve been a trim and fit personal trainer or athlete for a decade or two, it’s hard to remember how difficult it can be to go for that first short run, or to not give into the temptation of eating an entire chocolate cake.

If on the other hand, you were out of shape and overweight yourself just a short year ago and are still working on fine-tuning your diet and exercise regime, you can relate. You remember what it was like when you started.

Stay One Step Ahead In Your Niche

Here’s the thing. Your readers, subscribers, and customers don’t need you to know it all. They simply need you to be a few steps ahead of them.

They need you to be able to explain what they should do next on their journey towards the end goal. You don’t have to have reached that goal yet. All you need is a good plan and more experience than they have.

All this is to say that you shouldn’t shy away from topics because you don’t consider yourself an expert in them yet. Instead, there’s a lot of value in sharing your own journey.

It’s ok for you to be part of your target audience. In fact, it’s helpful because you know their pain and the problems they face.

Choose a niche that can help you create more authentic content. It helps you find the best possible solutions for someone in your situation.

Choose a Niche Where You Can Be a Problem Solver

You can create products and training programs that address the important issues your customers face. You can share the products and services that have helped you along the way. You can make a difference and help them move forward while you continue on your own journey.

Stop imposter syndrome and don’t hide behind the “I’m not an expert” excuse. You have something of value to add that a true expert can’t share.

You can give them feedback and ideas based on what you’re experiencing right now. You can share what is and isn’t working for you. Most importantly you can be a source of inspiration and motivation as your target audience watches you work towards the same goals and aspirations they have.

Choose a niche for your online business based on what you know and are passionate about. This will make the creation of your business more enjoyable and allow you to relate better to your audience. Remember, being a few steps ahead of your target audience is often more valuable than being a distant expert.

I’m Kim Nelson, a business owner for more than 20 years of both online and brick & mortar businesses, and a retired 25-year career paramedic. Follow me on Medium.com to read more articles I’ve written.